After implementing rigorous safety protocols on-site, Jurassic World: Dominion is on course to be the first major studio movie to resume shooting in the UK after the COVID-19 pandemic made productions go dark in the area. Cameras are expected to roll the second week of July (July 6) at Pinewood Studios.
Universal Pictures and the filmmakers behind the project have been working to pull out all the stops to get production back underway after the shoot had to shut down just four weeks into a 20-week shoot. Universal has been working with the UK’s British Film Council and U.S. unions to ensure the production meets required safety standards and they’re even going beyond these protocols to make sure they’re on the level when it’s time to begin shooting again. The studio will be spending $5 million on its protocols, which will see the production carry out thousands of tests during the remainder of filming. All cast and crew will also be tested before returning to set and then again multiple times during filming.
The protocols will also include the commission of a private medical facility called Your Doctor to manage the entire production’s medical needs; COVID training for all cast and crew; on-site doctors, nurses and isolation booths; 150 hand sanitizer stations; nightly anti-viral ‘fogs’; more than 1,800 safety signs put up around Pinewood; and ‘Green Zones’ for shooting cast and crew:
“Anyone with symptoms will be isolated immediately before being sent home. We want to make sure that we are going above and beyond the national protocols to create a safe environment. Cost isn’t our main concern now: it’s safety. We will take direction from our medical team, but we’re confident that with the staggered scheduling and zones of talent and crew, along with a system of contact tracing, we can move forward with limited delay in production.”
Universal Pictures has clearly crossed their T’s and dotted their I’s on this one because the program has been vetted and approved by Universal chairman Donna Langley and Universal’s senior leadership team. Langley has been a very vocal advocate of getting the industry back into production and has even been the driving force behind the working group for LA County’s economic resiliency task force on behalf of the media and entertainment sector.
Jurassic World: Dominion has been one of a handful of major studio productions on hold in the UK. The government gave the film and TV industries the go-ahead for production to re-start last month but there have been some safety protocols that needed to be set in place before work could begin once again. Unlike many productions, Universal’s previous insurance policy will remain in place without exclusions, which is part of the reason the studio is able to return to production so quickly. As far as its stars like Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, they will fly back to the UK shortly where they will need to carry out a two-week quarantine per new government regulations.
