Posted by Joey Nathan on 6th Jul 2020
UK Eases Quarantine Rules For Film & TV
The UK Government has said it will publish guidance this week allowing “small numbers of essential cast and crew” to travel to the UK without having to quarantine for 14 days.
Those individuals will need to live and work in “bubbles” comprising accommodation and filming locations only.
The move is aimed at easing restrictions on high-end inward investment film and TV productions as well as major sporting events. The UK has already published Covid safety protocols for productions.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “The world’s biggest blockbusters and high-end TV shows are made in Britain.
“Our creativity, expertise and highly successful tax reliefs for our screen industries means that we are an in demand location that in turn delivers a great return for our economy.
“We want the industry to bounce back and exempting small numbers of essential cast and crew from quarantine is part of our continued commitment to getting cameras rolling safely again.”
The government said that Dowden contacted Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise last week about the plans and spoke about how Mission Impossible 7 and 8 can resume filming at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden.
Cast and crew on the production had previously said that filming could re-start in September but UK tabloid The Sun claims that Cruise is already in prep in the country, which could indicate an earlier re-start. We have reached out to Paramount.
The film is one of a handful of major British-qualifying U.S. productions waiting to get back underway in the UK. Universal will resume filming on Jurassic World: Dominion from tomorrow.
Adrian Wootton, chief executive of the British Film Commission, commented: “Today’s immensely welcome news is also a clear recognition of the importance of the film and high-end TV inward investment sector to the UK’s economy.
“The sector was worth over £3 billion in 2019, and has a clear role to play in our economic recovery following the lockdown. While the British Film Commission COVID-19 production guidance published last month is already helping to restart production safely, this considered exemption will allow international cast and crew back in the country, and back on set, to continue work on the blockbuster films and high end TV productions at our biggest studio facilities.”
Ben Roberts, chief executive of the British Film Institute, added: “Film and television are worth £9.9 billion to the UK economy and being able to get production back up and running as quickly as possible is going to help our industry and its 77,000 production workers contribute to the UK’s economic recovery.”
“It’s great news that film and television production have been granted quarantine exemption, one of the key outcomes from the work of the BFI’s Screen Sector Task Force, which in tandem with the UK’s COVID-19 industry guidance, means that film and television productions that are reliant on international talent, will be able to go ahead, generating jobs and securing a pipeline of new work for those working across the wider industry.”
The UK government on Friday announced plans to lift quarantine rules for 50 “low risk” countries.
The country has been one of the worst impacted by the coronavirus. The government has been widely critized for its slow response to the outbreak, for confusing messaging and for advisors and politicians flouting their own rules.
*Credit - Deadline*
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