Coronavirus (COVID-19)

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'The Batman' halts production again after Robert Pattinson reportedly tests positive for COVID-19

Ethan Alter - Senior Writer, Yahoo Entertainment

Batman has previously fought and defeated the Joker (several of them), Mr. Freeze and Bane on the big screen. But the coronavirus pandemic is proving a more wily foe. Production on The Batman — Matt Reeves’s highly-anticipated reboot of the feature film franchise starring Robert Pattinson as a younger, more inexperienced Dark Knight — has shut down for a second time after the Twilight star reportedly tested positive for the virus.

“A member of The Batman production has tested positive for COVID-19 and is isolating in accordance with established protocols,” a Warner Bros. spokesperson said in a statement provided to Variety.  “Filming is temporarily paused.”  

Vanity Fair subsequently identified Pattinson, who was spotted walking mask-less in London in July,  as the crew member in question.  Warner Bros. and the actor’s representatives have yet to respond to the outlet’s reporting.

Production on The Batman, which is filming in the United Kingdom, originally shut down in March when the pandemic’s first wave swept across the globe. The halt in shooting forced Warner Bros. to adjust the film’s release date: originally scheduled to hit theaters on June 25, 2021, the movie was pushed back to October 1, 2021.   

Speaking with Yahoo Entertainment in August,  Reeves’s co-writer, Mattson Tomlin, said that safety was upmost in mind as The Batman crew reassembled. “The whole goal is to make it safe,” Tomlin said. “It’s a really scary time out there, so not putting peoples’ lives in jeopardy has to be the first goal, and I know they’re doing that in spades.” 

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/the-...04554.html