Disney live-action productions on hold due to coronavirus

Disney said on Friday (March 13) it has put on hiatus some of its live-action productions including Rob Marshall’s The Little Mermaid, which was due to start shooting at Pinewood in London next week.

Among the others are The Last Duel, Ridley Scott’s Medieval action drama for 20th Century Studios starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Jody Comer. Shooting had got underway in France and was scheduled to move to Ireland ahead of a December release.

The list includes Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, which was suspended in Australia this week after director Destin Daniel Cretton chose to self-isolate under the recommendation of doctors.

Also on hiatus are Disney+ title Home Alone, Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley that had been shooting for Searchlight Pictures in Toronto, and Peter Pan & Wendy and Shrunk, both of which are in pre-production.

“While there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on our productions, after considering the current environment and the best interests of our cast and crew, we have made the decision to pause production on some of our live-action films for a short time,” a Disney spokesperson said. “We will continue to assess the situation and restart as soon as feasible.”

On Thursday Disney said it was postponing the global releases of Mulan, The New Mutants, and Antlers. It remains to be seen what the studio will do with Black Widow, the Scarlett Johansson Avengers spin-off that is set to launch on May 1.