James Bond film, No Time to Die and Mission Impossible with Ethan Hunt on the move are not the only major projects hit by COVID-19. Will the entertainment industry survive?
No Time to Die producers, moving the film’s release date from April 2 to November 12 are being hailed. Similar is the decision made by the Mission Impossible team to move its release date further down to July 23, 2021. But unlike Pakistan where there is a glut of films on Eid and the rest of the year is quiet (example 2019 and probably 2020), the entire calendar is affected.
SXSW (Austin, Texas) is done away with, which means the small films that were set to debut at the festival will now struggle. Though they will be covered by certain publications, as Indie Wire reported, Amazon bailed on it.
A number of festivals where small films get picked up by streaming giants or studios such as an important Cannes conference; The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival are now off as is a French film festival that happens annually.
But these are just the big names. The biggest problem to hit the entertainment industry is “uncertainty” notes Indie Wire. The effect of Corid-19 and the ensuing panic has hit the calendar.
What and how to host the Cinema Con that is held in Nevada, Las Vegas every year – what of it? It is an event where actors, writers, directors, producers sit on panels as exclusive footage from high profile films are shown to a community of fans who come in big numbers. Scheduled to take place from March 30 to April 2, the people number in 5,000 and come from over 80 countries. With the Italian border now closed, Cannes Film Festival is another question mark? For film fans, there is no bigger event than San Diego’s Comic Con where the stars descend along with their films with 135,000 people go to the event.
But experts in Hollywood can’t seem to agree over corona virus, the outbreak and whether it will peak to a point that these events will be hit. But Cinema Con’s ending will bring us to the start of April and Tribecca Film Festival.
Reported Indie Wire: “The world has already seen the result of how localized outbreaks can happen when people are in close quarters. After one passenger on board the Diamond Princess Cruise ship was confirmed to have corona virus, the ship was quarantined for several weeks and 705 passengers were diagnosed with the disease.”
“Companies are beginning to pull out, though Amazon Studios is the only film company to nix its plans. The Interactive conference has seen more dramatic impact. Twitter, Facebook, and Intel are among those who have canceled.”
Will the movies, without the boisterous love of fans at various festivals destroy cinema numbers? Will Black Widow, the solo film of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow from Avengers get the kind of numbers it deserves? For now some of the smaller festivals will go on but because of corona fear and movement of dates, we may see some films, scheduled to release this year, moved to next year ala Mission Impossible 7.
-With information from Indie Wire
