The UK Gives The Green Light For Film And TV Production To Resume

As the UK looks to start opening up its COVID-19 lockdown, film and TV productions have officially been given the go-ahead to resume in the country, as reported by The Guardian. While some experts warn that the UK is courting danger by beginning to open up too soon, the country is keen to kickstart an industry that brought in £3.6 billion last year.

New guidelines penned by the British Film Commission and the British Film Institute have been approved by UK Government and health bodies, giving the green light to productions who can abide by the COVID-related restrictions.

A leaked draft of the guidelines obtained in May by Deadline required measures such as mandatory coronavirus training for crew, temperature checks, and quarantine periods for international cast and crew. The finalized guidelines have not been made public.

The list of disrupted productions in the UK is extensive, including big-name movies and TV shows such as The Batman and the second season of Netflix's The Witcher series. Warner Bros. also had a third Fantastic Beasts movie in production, while Disney was shooting a live-action Little Mermaid film in the UK. So far, no production company has publicly announced a resumption of filming in the UK.

Film production worldwide has stalled due to the pandemic, though some productions are looking at resuming soon. The Avatar sequel will look to continue filming in New Zealand, with select cast and crew having arrived in the country on May 31 to begin a two-week mandatory quarantine.

The UK is still seeing large numbers of new COVID-19 cases, with 1,936 new cases recorded on May 31. The country has seen a total of 38,489 deaths from the disease.