Production on The Batman has halted again this week as its lead actor reportedly contracted COVID-19, but it seems the company is hopeful production will resume “very soon.”
On Thursday it was reported that production on The Batman had shut down due to a positive case of the coronavirus amongst the cast and crew. Later in the day, it was revealed that it was Batman himself, Robert Pattinson, that had contracted the virus somehow.
Speaking with the media on Thursday afternoon, Warner Bros. chairperson and CEO Ann Sarnoff could not identify the person who had caught the virus due to privacy rules, but she did address the situation. “We’re still in the middle of investigating what is the situation. We’re pausing temporarily for now until we have more information, but we have all the protocols set up to do contact tracing and hopefully get back up into production very soon,” said Sarnoff.
On Friday, a report from The Daily Mail – the outlet that broke the original story – indicated shooting will continue without Pattinson. According to the source, Pattinson will need to be offset for a minimum of two weeks and it is estimated that would cost around £5 million (approx. $6.63 million USD). The plan is to shoot on sets Pattinson had not yet been involved with, and any cast and crew he was not in contact with could continue work.
No exact date was given for the resumption of work.
Having already gone through a five and a half month shutdown, it’s not surprising Warner Bros. is eager to keep the production moving forward. This plan would call for an intense time for Pattinson once he returns to set, but it’s something we’re sure he can handle.
The Batman is scheduled to hit theaters on Oct. 1, 2021.
SOURCE: Deadline
