While most of the country sits around, holding its breath for the results of the ongoing Presidential election, currently in it’s fourth day, the world of television and film production doesn’t have time to goof off, as everyone is trying to catch up due to the COVID pandemic or find new ways to work efficiently despite the limitations and protocols created to keep cast and crew safe.
Georgia is especially critical in the election this year with both Se
nate seats up for grabs and a highly-contested Presidential race that might come down to a few thousand votes… and sadly, a recount. Earlier this week, Indiewire posted a terrific report on the situation in Georgia and how it won’t necessarily affect or be affected by the tax credits that have driven production to the Southern state in droves. Georgia is easily the busiest state in the country in terms of film and TV production outside New York and L.A., and it has had the benefits of opening early with great plans and protocols to try to keep COVID off set.
Unfortunately, there’s more production shutdown woes to share, as Olivia Wilde‘s thriller Don’t Worry Darling — the actor’s second feature as a director after last year’s Book Smart — had to shut down production for two weeks as an unnamed crew member tested positive for COVID. The movie for New Line has slowly been building up its cast as it began filming in Los Angeles last month.
Disney+‘s popular show, The Mandalorian, which just kicked off its second season, having wrapped production in March just before the pandemic, is already prepping for its third season. Lucasfilm has been hinting about a few spin-offs, including a possible Boba Fett mini-series, which may begin filming first. There’s a bit of confusion about when Season 3 of The Mandalorian with word fluctuating between later this year to spring 2021.
Theatrical isn’t do particularly well either as 20th Century Studios has removed both Death on the Nile and Free Guy from their planned December 11 and December 18 release dates, respectively, which means that Warner Bros’ Wonder Woman 84 is now the final large-scale blockbuster still scheduled for 2020. Not that I blame the studio due to the awful box office showings of recent releases, and I’m not sure the Kevin Costner-Diane Lane thriller Let Him Go, being released into theaters by Focus Features today, can do much to break the $5 million ceiling that few movies other than Christopher Nolan‘s Tenet were able to achieve. (Tenet just announced its DVD/Bluray release for December, so its run in theaters may be coming to an end very soon.)
It’s actually been a relatively quiet week with so much attention being put on the election, and there weren’t even that many significant trailers released. Even so, we’re all slightly stressed, so we’ll end things on a trailer for LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special, which hopefully can offer a few laughs as we head into the weekend. That will be on Disney+ starting November 17.
