Anna Daniels
Sony halts Nightingale, Wheel of Time productions
The coronavirus outbreak around the globe is now hitting Sony Pictures as the studio has had to halt production on the upcoming historical drama The Nightingale starring Elle and Dakota Fanning in their first film together, as well as the series adaptation of the Wheel of Time novel franchise starring Rosamund Pike (Radioactive), according to Variety.
RELATED: Disney Halts Production on All Live-Action Projects
Pre-production on the Fannings-led film at TriStar Pictures has been pushed back by two weeks in Budapest, while the Prague-set shooting of the Sony-Amazon Studios production Wheel of Time has been halted completely, with no restart date currently set.
“This is obviously a spanner in the works,” Matthew Stillman of Stillking Films, said in a statement. “This is effectively a temporary interruption, but we don’t know how long it’s going to go on for. We’re all a little bit in the dark.”
The Hungarian government declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, shutting down many large gatherings to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus and has also banned travel from Italy, China, South Korea. and Iran. The European country is considered the second biggest production hub on the continent, hosing such high-profile projects including Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Netflix’s The Witcher and Shadow and Bone, while neighboring Czech Republic acted as the home to Miracle Workers, ABC’s Whiskey Cavalier and Netflix’s Freud.
RELATED: The Flash Shuts Down Production Amid Coronavirus Concerns
While many studios have shut down production on many big upcoming projects, including The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Mission: Impossible 7, The Flash season seven and the second season of Apple TV’s The Morning Show, Disney’s shutdown of seven projects earlier this morning marks the biggest delay yet from any one studio.
Many major festivals has also been delayed or cancelled due to these fears, including WonderCon, E3, South by Southwest and the 19th Annual Tribecca Film Festival.
(Photo Credit: Backgrid Images)
Written by: CS
