Avatar Sequels Filming in New Zealand Delayed Indefinitely Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
The US producer of the four scheduled Avatar sequels, Jon Landau, spoke to the NZ Herald and informed that the executive team for the $1.65 billion (US$1b) production will remain in Los Angeles and have cancelled their New Zealand schedule for now.
Coronavirus outbreak is bringing everything to a standstill as film shoots, film screenings and everything that involves a public gathering is being shut down as a precautionary measure. While countries such as Italy and France are on lockdown, other countries too are trying to contain the situation. In the midst of all this, James Cameron's Avatar sequels which were filming in New Zeland have now been shut down. The US producer of the four scheduled Avatar sequels, Jon Landau, spoke to the NZ Herald and informed that the executive team for the $1.65 billion (US$1b) production will remain in Los Angeles and have cancelled their New Zealand schedule for now. Tom Hanks, Idris Elba, Olga Kurylenko - List Of Celebrities Who Have Tested Positive For Coronavirus.
Not just Avatar, all major Hollywood productions that were to have international shoots have now been indefinitely postponed. Speaking to Herald, Landau informed, "We've delayed it. We had plans to come down Friday night with a group of people and start back up and we made the decision to hold off and continue working here [Los Angeles], and come down there a little bit later than we'd planned."
The sequels to 2009's Avatar which until today remains the second highest-grossing film of all time has been in the works since production started back in 2017. Apart from Avatar, we recently also heard that the production of Tom Cruise's next action film in the MI franchise has also been put on hold by the producers. Disney too recently shut down the production of their upcoming Disney Plus series, Falcon and the Winter Soldier which was to take place in Prague. Coronavirus Pandemic: After Tom Hanks, Idris Elba Tests Positive for COVID-19, Says He Has No Symptoms But Will Keep Updating.
With releases being postponed due to COVID-19, reports stated that Hollywood could take a $20 billion hit from coronavirus impact.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 17, 2020 12:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).