Batman Filming Halted after Pattinson Gets COVID-19

Filming in the UK for the new Batman movie has been halted when its star Robert Pattinson allegedly tested positive for coronavirus, just days after the filming had resumed. 

“A member of ‘The Batman’ production has tested positive for Covid-19, and is isolating in accordance with established protocols,” Warner Bros. said in a statement to AFP.

“Filming is temporarily paused.”

The studio did not name the infected person or indicate when the filming would resume.  

However, a host of Hollywood commercial magazines, including Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, have reported that Pattinson, 34, was a sick cast member.

Pattinson's representative could not be contacted for comment at once.

Production for the new film — a dark, detective-style mystery take on the “Caped Crusader” — also had to shut down midway through production in March due to the pandemic.

Director Matt Reeves has said his version — due out next June — is inspired by classic film noir such as “Chinatown” and “Taxi Driver,” and will meet a “very human and very flawed” Bruce Wayne in his second year as Batman, trying to solve a series of crimes.

– Strict safety rules –

The first clips of the much-hyped film unveiled at the DC FanDome event last month left audiences drooling, with a mystery villain leaving notes for Batman at crime scenes around Gotham — and the hero of the story crushing a street gangster until he growls: "I'm vengeance."

The halt in production comes as Hollywood scrambles to get back to work after the pandemic put a stop to all film and TV shoots in March.

Several big Hollywood blockbusters have resumed shooting in the last two months, many of them in Britain, loosening the coronavirus travel laws to allow casts and crews to fly in for work.

Among the high-profile films that have received the green light to resume production are “Jurassic World: Dominion,” starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, and “Mission: Impossible 7” starring Tom Cruise.

Film shoots in Los Angeles have only recently resumed, with producers enforcing stringent safety controls on actors and crew members.

Pattinson, who rose to fame in Twilight's teen love drama, is the next of a series of high-profile actors that have contracted the virus.

Wednesday, Dwayne "The Hammer" Johnson revealed that his entire family had been tested positive for coronavirus, but that they had all made a full recovery.

Johnson, the world's leading actor, said that his wife and two young daughters had taken Covid-19 from close family friends and encouraged his 196 million Instagram followers to wear masks to stop "politicizing" the pandemic.

“This has been one of the most challenging and difficult things we have ever had to endure as a family,” said Johnson.

“I wish it was only me who tested positive. But it wasn’t — it was my entire family, so this one was a real kick in the gut,” he added.

The "Jumanji" actor's young children Jasmine and Tiana Gia had little symptoms, but Johnson and his wife Lauren "had a rough go," he added.

Other celebrities who became ill with coronavirus include actors Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko and British star Idris Elba.