Yahoo News How ‘Scream’ Is Dealing With Positive COVID-19 Tests Of Three Crew Members
EXCLUSIVE: Three crew members on the Wilmington, NC production of Spyglass Media Group/Paramount’s Scream relaunch have tested positive, but filming will solider on, with the Radio Silence-directed movie set to resume as scheduled on Monday. Yesterday’s day of filming wrapped on time, I hear, for a weekend break.
It’s important to note that until there’s a vaccine, this is par for the course for any film or TV production; there will be COVID-19 cases, and safety protocols are in effect so that work can continue. What is enabling production to continue is the fact that the crew members weren’t in the primary pod which includes the actors, the director, assistant directors and DP. If that was the case, production would need to be paused, i.e. what occurred with Warner Bros.’ The Batman recently for a bit after Robert Pattinson came down with coronavirus. Filming on that UK production has already resumed. During the pandemic, productions are implementing a pod/zone approach by which the crew is separated into multiple groups, the primary one being the actors, director, DP, etc. with little interaction or none in between groups. This is to keep everyone safe (on a recent Crew Call podcast with Invisible Narratives heads Adam Goodman and Andrew Sugerman, the duo detailed how that zone approach worked on their LA summer shoot of thriller Songbird).
The three Scream crew members who tested positive for COVID-19 will immediately be quarantined and undergo more testing, I understand. Contact tracing is also being practiced. Despite rumors that production is shutting down, that’s not the case for Scream which is scheduled for a Jan. 14, 2022 theatrical release via Paramount. Scream franchise company thesps Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell and Marley Shelton are returning with new castmembers Jack Quaid, Jenna Ortega, Dylan Minnette, Mason Gooding and Mikey Madison.
Radio Silence is comprised of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett who helmed Ready or Not and V/H/S. James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick wrote the script for Scream. Creator Kevin Williamson and the third member of the Radio Silence trio, Chad Villella, are executive producing with Project X Entertainment’s Vanderbilt, Paul Neinstein and William Sherak serving as producers. The Scream series through four films has grossed more than $600M worldwide.
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