The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world to its core and the world of television and film is no different as events are cancelled, celebrities face the brunt of the virus themselves and movies see their release dates postponed and moved to later in the year. One of the largest film festivals in the world, Cannes Festival, has been running for 73 years, but the 2020 event set to occur in mid-May, was postponed until later in the summer. The Daytime Emmys originally set to occur in June, is entirely canceled. The NATAS chairman, Terry O’Reilly, expressed the reasoning behind was because of the daily change of information that has resulted in an unpredictability about the future.
On March 12th via Twitter, Tom Hanks was the first high profile celebrity to announce that he had caught coronavirus along with his wife while in Australia. As of March 21st Hanks has stated that he and his wife are slowly recovering on course for healthy adults. This was followed by Idris Elba who, on March 16th announced that he had contracted coronavirus, but did not currently feel any symptoms. Lost actor Daniel Dae Kim has also contracted the virus and took the initiative to publicly call out racist comments resulting from the spread of COVID-19, in particular it being described as the “Chinese Virus”.
As the world practices social distancing and public venues close, movie theaters have followed suit. So, if you were looking forward to the releases of MCU’s Black Widow or the newest James Bond film, No Time to Die, you may have to wait a bit longer. Black Widow set to be released on May 1, 2020 has been postponed with no new release date set. No Time to Die was set to be released in April 2020 but is now delayed until November 25th.
Danielle DerGarabedian – Film & TV Writer
