New Zealand is one of the few countries that has nearly eliminated COVID-19 within its borders. Now, according to Deadline, the way is clear for a few Hollywood projects to return to New Zealand and resume production. Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings and Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bepop TV series have both been granted waivers by the country. However, the cast and crew of the respective series will have to go into quarantine for two weeks before work can begin again.
The Lord of the Rings was reportedly close to finishing its second episode when the pandemic shutdown began. Deadline notes that the original plan was to take a hiatus after episode 2 so that the writers could tackle more scripts. Regardless, the pandemic may have negated the need for that. Filming is expected to resume in September.
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It’s a bit unclear if Cowboy Bebop can quickly restart. Series star, John Cho, suffered a knee injury last fall and the series was delayed a year while he recovers. If it takes a full year for Cho to heal, then an October start may be likely.
Additionally, New Zealand allowed ten more Avatar 2 crew members to reenter the country. That film was among the first projects to get a greenlight to resume.
Are you excited to hear that The Lord of the Rings and Cowboy Bebop may be back on track? Let us know in the comment section below!
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