Welcome to MovieMaker’s Movie News Roundup, where we succinctly summarize movie news and just movie news — always with links back to the original source. Today: Theaters fight to stay open; Shang-Chi pauses; no crying from Tom Hanks; and even the movies you didn’t realize would be coming out anytime soon will not be coming out anytime soon. We tried to find some non-coronavirus news, honest we did.
Shang-Chi Paused: Marvel’s Shang-Chi, the first Marvel movie with an Asian hero front and center, is pausing production while director Destin Daniel Cretton follows his doctor’s advice that he self-isolate, Variety reports. Cretton was not feeling coronavirus symptoms, but is being extra careful as he awaits his Covid-19 test results because he’s a new dad.
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson In Isolation: Hanks shared an image of himself and Wilson looking relatively chipper as they self-quarantine due to their coronavirus diagnosis: “We are in isolation so we do not spread it to anyone else,” he tweeted, adding: “Remember, despite all the current events, there is no crying in baseball.”
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Release Date Postponements: If you’ve lost track, which is very easy to do, movies postponed in the last few days include Mulan, F9, New Mutants, Antlers, The Artist’s Wife, Greyhound, Peter Rabbit 2 and A Quiet Place 2. They join the James Bond film No Time to Die, which was first to delay release. Black Widow is still on schedule for May 1. Film festivals that are off for now and have not yet been rescheduled include Tribeca and the Oxford Film Festival. Also, Cinemacon, the annual gathering of movie theater owners, is cancelled this year.
Theaters Struggle to Stay Open: With California limiting public gatherings to 250 people, and New York gatherings limited to 500 people, cinemas are trying to adapt to new crowd-control measures and stay open. The Hollywood Reporter has the rundown. (If you do leave your house/apartment/compound this weekend, two new releases that deserve your support are Never Rarely Sometimes Always and The Hunt. Those links go to our stories about them.)
Cannes-Do Attitude: Cannes is still scheduled to happen on schedule at the end of May, Deadline says.
Book Recommendation: There’s no movie tie-in here, except that it connects to some of the same history covered in Darkest Hour and Dunkirk. As I spend more time indoors these days, I’ve found comfort and inspiration in Eric Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile, about Winston Churchill’s leadership of the United Kingdom as it stood up to the Nazis in 1940, when England’s allies were falling and the U.S. had yet to join the fight. What the British people dealt with then seemed far more insurmountable than what we’re dealing with now.
Podcast Recommendation: We spoke with the charming and kind Destin Daniel Cretton in December about his film Just Mercy. We wish him, and everyone, good health and happiness.
And now, a little section we love to call “Yesterday’s Movie News.” Please hum the Beatles’ “Yesterday” to yourself as you read it. We tried to make it autoplay, but it turned out to be more expensive than you’d expect, and we’re spending all our money right now on $100 hand sanitizer.
California Cancellations: Gov. Gavin Newsom recommends the cancellation of gatherings of more than 250 people, which could affect… every gathering of more than 250 people, from games to movie premieres to concerts to you name it. The Hollywood Reporter has more.
Chet Hanks on Instagram
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson Doing Well, Son Says: Chet Hanks offers this no-time-for-a-shirt Instagram update on his parents: “I just got off the phone with them. They both are fine, they’re not even that sick. They’re not worried about it, they’re not trippin’, but they’re going through the necessary health precautions, obviously.” Tom Hanks announced Wednesday that he and his wife, actress Rita Wilson, were diagnosed with coronavirus while Hanks was in Australia for Baz Luhrman’s upcoming Elvis Presley film. Hanks will play Col. Tom Parker.
Contagion Isn’t Helping: The nitwit who writes this roundup you’re reading also wrote this lil ditty about how movies infect the way we think about health crises… and why that isn’t very helpful now.
The Man in the Big Lebowski House: The Hollywood Reporter has a terrific feature on the 80-year-old Lakers superfan, James Goldstein, who lives in the sleek modern house from The Big Lebowski. With the NBA season suspended, Mr. Goldstein will, sadly, be spending more time in said house.
Working From Home Rules: We mean “rules” as in, Here are the rules, not like, Whoa this rules! That said, CAA, Paradigm and ICM have all told employees they can work from home, according to The Hollywood Reporter. And UTA employees will all work from home Friday so the company can test its telecommuting systems, THR additionally reports. Also, your dumb boss asked us to remind you that work from home means work from home, mmmkay?
Harvey Weinstein ‘Chest Pains’: Soon after he was sentenced to 23 years in prison, Weinstein was taken to a hospital for “ongoing heart problems and chest pains,” a rep told Reuters.
Song of the South Staying in the Disney Vault: Disney’s Song of the South will never come to Disney+ because it is ““not appropriate in today’s world,” Disney executive chairman Bob Iger says. Deadline has the story. If you’re up for a terrific podcast about the tortured history of Song of the South, check out last fall’s You Must Remember This exploration of the film.
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