JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION (2021): Production Set to Resume on July 6

Jurassic World: Dominion to be first major film production to resume in U.K. in wake of COVID-19

Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Dominion, the second sequel to 2015’s massively-successful Jurassic World, will continue production at U.K.-based Pinewood Studios in the first week of July.

Executives at Universal have been working to implement new safety precautions at Pinewood in preparation for the return to filming, with a tentative start date of July 6. These preparations have cost around $5 million and will be implemented for the remainder of the shoot.

In addition, any cast and crew that left the U.K. at the beginning of social distancing will be required to undergo two weeks of quarantine upon their return. This includes the film’s stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, who both returned to the U.S. when production first ceased.

According to Deadline, the insurance policy for the film shoot remains in place and without exclusions, and Pinewood has also been charging Universal holding fees for the project. Both of these are rumored to have fed into the studio’s decision to get their tentpole’s production back up and running as soon as possible.

Dominion was forced to cease production in mid-March in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, it was four weeks deep into a 20-week-long shoot. Since then, portions of post-production work (such as VFX) have been underway.

The Guidelines

Deadline lists Universal’s safety protocols as follows:

Universal’s protocols for Jurassic World: Dominion will include:

• • The commission of a private medical facility called Your Doctor to manage the entire production’s medical requirements. This will include Covid-19, fever and antibody testing but they will also review all hand sanitizer, social distancing measures, updates to government and best practice guidelines. Your Doctor will continually update the production’s safety measures as the science and environment changes and will be available for cast consultations to review health and safety concerns.

• • The studio has commissioned Your Doctor to test all crew before they start on the production. They will then test the crew at times throughout production. The whole crew will also be antibody tested. Thousands of tests are expected to be carried out over the shoot period.

• • All crew will be temperature tested every day and not allowed on site until complete. Two walk-through temperature testing stations are being built at each end of Pinewood Studios with capacity of 1,000 crew over 2 hours. Each test station will have a compliment of doctors, nurses and isolation booths. Crew will be verified that they have been tested by a bespoke RFID system that registers when a crew member has been temperature tested. Crew will also be given a paper wristband for identification by security as a fall back. Additional temperature test stations will be set up on location as required.

• • The studio is putting up around 1,800 signs across Pinewood and more on location. These will include reminders that crew numbers will be limited in various locations, the need for social distancing (six feet of separation) and one-way systems in operation.

• • The studio is rolling out a full COVID training program to be undertaken by all staff before starting. Universal will also do specific training for specialist groups (e.g. costume and makeup).

• • The studio is manufacturing 150 hand sanitizer stations to be positioned at points around Pinewood Studios. They are also putting in an extra 60 sinks. All crew members will also be given an individual hand sanitizer bottle when they start.

• • Production will double the cleaning recommendations and employ a large cleaning team who will continually clean all the touch points across the site in addition to all common areas, toilets, welfare and kitchens. They will clean with specialized antiviral sprays appropriate to the situation. In the evenings all toilets, communal areas, welfare areas, kitchens, trucks and sets will be antiviral fogged. Props, grip, SFX and camera will use specialized antistatic cleaning systems.

• • The studio is setting up a ‘Greenzone’ for the shooting cast and crew which will have an enhanced testing environment. The ‘Greenzone’ will be policed to stop any untested crew from coming in as a further measure to prevent any spread of COVID.

• • Universal will have additional security detail maintaining the temperature testing centers and a further team who will check crew are eligible to go into the protected greenzones. Security team will be trained in COVID measures to ensure that the required operations are followed.

Industry Restart

Jurassic World: Dominion is looking like the first major-studio production to return to filming in the wake of the coronavirus’ industry shutdown – or, at least for those being filmed in the U.K. The next two Avatar sequels will finish filming once the crew comes out of quarantine in New Zealand, and Deadline reports some Netflix projects are now filming in Nordic countries. But otherwise, the entertainment industry remains relatively shuttered stateside, with only very small shoots being allowed.

Deadline also reports that these protocols may change over time as “there remains safety, practical and insurance issues to iron out as the UK slowly comes out of lockdown”. It’s unclear if U.S. productions occurring overseas will continue to follow their own industry guidelines announced two weeks ago, or if they will change on a country-by-country basis.

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