How Cinema Has Tried, And Failed, To Adapt To Covid
The smallest violin is playing for tinsel town as they make a spectacle out of themselves over the pandemic. I guess spectacles are literally what they’re paid to do so you can’t begrudge them that. This year they really tried, and failed, to adapt to Covid.
Pretend Everything’s Fine
But everything’s on a timetable and time stops for no man, except Tenet which yolo’d into cinemas because that’s just the way Christopher Nolan likes it. It sort of became the first penguin into the water to see if the movie industry could tough it out through a pandemic. Unfortunately audiences weren’t particularly enthused at the idea of getting locked in a dark room with strangers breathing the same popcorn and Covid-infused air. Physical home releases are expected to drop on December 15th, and perhaps streaming to be available on HBO Max at a later date.
Streaming Will Save Us
Disney opted to release Mulan on Disney+, scalping you $39.99 for the pleasure. It was a daring strategy that could have changed the face of movie releases forever if it didn’t just take one kid to buy it, rip it and share it all over the internet. The uptake obviously wasn’t good enough to coax Disney into dropping Black Widow and its other big ticket films in the same way. So far Black Widow is still in Covid purgatory.
Keep Calm & Film On
On the other end of the sausage factory, there have been hiccups as well. The new in-production Batman movie, featuring Robert Pattinson’s jawline, was stricken down soon after it got back up and running again. It had initially stopped production at the beginning of the year due to lockdowns and this second halt was due to someone on set testing positive for coronavirus. Rumours have it that it was Pattinson himself, but it also could have been Dave the lighting guy, but that’s not as exciting is it?
So has Hollywood learnt anything from all these failures? Nah, just keep chucking stuff at the wall till the wall either collapses or something sticks to it.
So what movies are giving it a shot and coming out in the (hopefully) near future? Check out our picks here.