Deadline is reporting that while Jurassic World: Dominion is still set to move to Malta at the end of August to continue shooting, production has now been scaled back due to a rise in COVID-19 infections there. After the birth of his child, Chris Pratt was supposed to head to Malta to continue working on the movie, but he, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Sam Neill are among those no longer travelling to the country.
Four crew members tested positive for the virus while on the island last week, while Malta was recently added to a list of countries from which arrivals to the UK must quarantine for 14 days. That's bad news for Jurassic World: Dominion, because the plan was for filming to resume in England once the cast had travelled to Matla for a few weeks to shoot a number of undisclosed sequences.
A Universal Pictures spokesperson tells the trade, "Jurassic World: Dominion will have a significant presence in Malta with a second unit crew shooting there from the end of August through to September. Working with an abundance of caution as we have done throughout this production, first unit will no longer shoot in Malta to keep our presence on the ground to a minimum."
Clearly, whatever key cast members were supposed to be doing there will now be achieved through the use of camera trickery and visual effects. This complicates matters, but the studio wants to get Jurassic World: Dominion in theaters as planned next year, so they're pushing ahead despite the pandemic.
Are you looking forward to checking out Colin Trevorrow's return to the Jurassic World franchise?