With New Zealand having effectively curbed the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the country has recently granted border exemptions to seven overseas productions to allow them to get back into the nearly shut down country to resume or begin filming.
The crew of James Cameron's Avatar sequel were among the first let back into the country last month to resume work, with 31 crew members already there and ten more soon set to join them. Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog has also already resumed production.
While those were previously known, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has now revealed five additional productions that have been granted exemptions. They are as follows: Amazon's The Lord of the Rings prequel series, Hasbro's Power Rangers Dino Fury, Netflix's Cowboy Bebop, Sweet Tooth, and Greatest Beer Run Ever.
The crews of the aforementioned series will arrive within the next six months.
The Lord of the Rings had already been filming prior to the shutdown, so it will likely be able to pick up where it left off relatively quicker than the others. The new season of Power Rangers and Cowboy Bebop had not yet begun shooting, so they are expected to begin a little further out.
It's currently being forecasted that the production restarts could bring up to 3,000 new jobs to the country and possibly over $400 million in revenue as major studios look for alternatives with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic showing no signs of slowing down in the U.S.