Production of many highly anticipated Disney as well as Marvel movies was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the studio has revealed that one cant expect the movies to get back on track in the near future.
"No projections," said Disney's CEO Bob Chapek, when asked about tentpoles projects resuming production. According to deadline.com, Chapek added that they would "be very responsible in terms of masks when we proceed" on the productions.
Responsible approach towards production
"In terms of large-scale production, we're going to go through the same process with our productions as we do our theme parks in terms of absolutely guaranteeing that we're going to be responsible in terms of how we put both our own employees and other filmmakers that are partners with us as they do these productions," said Chapek, stressing that they won't reopen until they get a green signal from "public health officials and strict safety procedures are in place".
Several projects hit
Due to the pandemic, Disney hit pause on productions like "Shang-Chi", Ridley Scott's "The Last Duel", "The Little Mermaid", "Nightmare Alley", "Shrunk" and "Peter Pan & Wendy". The studio also pushed its theatrical release to new dates, and put "Artemis Fowl" for release on its streaming service Disney+ later this month. "We very much believe in the value of the theatrical experience overall to launch blockbuster movies," Chapek said.
"As you know we had seven $1 billion films in calendar 2019, but we also realised that either because of changing and evolving consumer dynamics, or because of certain situations like COVID, we may have to make some changes to that overall strategy just because theatres aren't open, or aren't open to the extent that anybody needs to be financially viable. So we're going to evaluate each one of our movies on a case by case situation, as we are doing right now, during this coronavirus situation," he said.
