Universal Pictures Ramping Down Production On ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’, ‘Flint Strong’ & Untitled Billy Eichner Comedy In Wake Of Coronavirus

Anthony D'Alessandro
·3 min read

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Universal joins Disney and Paramount in putting a temporary stop to its feature productions with Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Dominion, Rachel Morrison’s sports drama Fling Strong and the Nick Stoller-directed, Judd Apatow-produced Billy Eichner comedy.

These productions are either already on hiatus or pausing this weekend.

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A statement released by the studio reads that “The studio continues to monitor the situation closely and will make a determination on when to restart production in the coming weeks.”

Jurassic World: Dominion recently went before the camera in Hawaii on Feb. 25. The movie reunites the cast from the original Jurassic Park movies — Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum– with the cast from the Jurassic World pics –Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. The sequel’s release date is June 11, 2021, but it will be amazing if all these movies which are stopping meet their original opening dates given how the release calendar is shifting.

Flint Strong, which isn’t dated yet, follows the story of Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields, a boxer from Flint, Michigan who trained to become the first woman in her country’s history to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport. Barry Jenkins wrote the movie which stars Ryan Destiny as Claressa Shields, Ice Cube, Olunike Adeliyi and Kylee D. Allen.

The untitled Eichner feature is a romantic comedy centering around two men who have commitment problems and are attempting a relationship. Eichner not only stars, but wrote the movie with Stoller. Stoller also co-produces under his Global Solutions banner with Judd Apatow’s Apatow Productions label.

Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible 7 was the first big Hollywood production to halt back on Feb. 24 as the coronavirus began to grip Italy, which is where the Tom Cruise movie was preparing to shoot.

Earlier today Disney announced that it was putting a pause on the following feature shoots: Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Rings, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan & Wendy, Shrunk, 20th Century Studios’ The Last Duel, Home Alone and Searchlight’s Guillermo del Toro movie Nightmare Alley.

“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. We will continue to assess the situation and restart as soon as feasible,” said a Disney spokesperson on Friday morning.

To date, Sony has no feature productions which are currently in progress.

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