The United Kingdom is entering into another national lockdown this week in hopes of snuffing out the spread of COVID-19. Effective this Wednesday, the lockdown will close virtually all schools, gyms, and non-essential businesses. Despite one of the toughest lockdowns in the world, Boris Johnson and his ministry have allowed for production on films and television shows to continue around the country.
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In a tweet shared Monday afternoon, British Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Oliver Dowden revealed those projects in production will be allowed to continue. “For the arts/creative sectors this [lockdown] means, you should work from home unless you can’t – exemptions include for training and rehearsal of performances, recording studios, and film & TV production,” the MP tweeted.
For the arts/creative sectors this means
You should work from home unless you can’t – exemptions include for training and rehearsal of performances, recording studios and film & TV production
Outdoor heritage sites and gardens can stay open for exercise
— Oliver Dowden (@OliverDowden) January 4, 2021
The news will likely come as a delight to several genre-adjacent productions currently filming in and around London. Work on tentpole features like Mission: Impossible 7 and Matt Reeves’ The Batman just recently restarted production and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is expected to begin principal photography in earnest in the coming weeks.
When filming on The Batman kicked back off in November, Warner Bros. chief Ann Sarnoff defended the move, saying the studio was going to continue to work during the trying times.
“I think we never expected things to go completely smoothly. In fact, as we’ve been getting our protocols ready, we built in contingencies,” Sarnoff shared. “If someone tests positive, you do contact tracing, you pause, you evaluate, and come back when you can. I think it would have been naïve to think we wouldn’t have certain cases on certain productions. The most important thing is to be ready for when that happens. And we were very much ready.”
“I don’t see things material changing until there is a medical solution unless we were to reach herd immunity somehow. Instead, we are just proceeding as if there won’t be and resuming production as safely as we can,” she added.
Cover photo by Dave Rushen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
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