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Warner Bros. halts 'The Batman' production after Robert Pattinson tests positive for COVID-19

Disney+ has officially released ‘Mulan’. Meanwhile, Robert Pattinson tested positive for coronavirus, halting the production of ‘The Batman’. Yahoo Finance’s Dan Roberts discusses.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: Right now, Dan Roberts is here, because they had to halt production of the "Batman" film in the United Kingdom because of COVID-19. What does this truly mean for the industry trying to get back on its feet?

DAN ROBERTS: Well, Adam, it's just a reminder that even though things have begun to return in Hollywood, in fact, you know, this film, "The Batman," had just restarted filming maybe a week ago, and of course, it was filming had been well under way before the pandemic, and then it had to halt in March when every movie under way had to halt. But a lot of projects have now returned to kind of cautious socially distanced filming, and then you have this.

Someone on the cast got COVID-19, and that someone was the star of the film, the Batman himself, Robert Pattinson. And it's just a reminder, I think, of how hard it's going to be for many months to come. I mean, even once, you know, a large number of people have returned to their offices and workplaces, Hollywood is really going to have a slow time crawling back here, because there will be a lot of starting and stopping.

By the way, worth mentioning the irony here, I mean, this weekend, "Tenet" comes out in select theaters in the US in areas where theaters are open. That's a Warner Brothers movie starring Robert Pattinson. And this, "The Batman," is a Warner Brothers movie starring Robert Pattinson. So filming likely to be delayed here, and that is likely, although Warner Brothers hasn't confirmed it, to delay the eventual release of this movie. But it'll get done, it'll come out, and there's a lot of hype in anticipation of this one.

DAN HOWLEY: Dan, do you think that we're going to get, you know, just these kind of trickles of movies coming out into the, you know, 2022 maybe? Because it does take quite a while for movies to be made, so WHEN do you think we'll get on the schedule again where we actually see, OK, Marvel, Marvel, "Star Wars," Marvel, Marvel, "Star Wars," you know, kind of a Disney gets thrown in there. Disney Animated, obviously, they have all of that. But when do you think we'll get that kind of cadence again?

DAN ROBERTS: Well, so I wrote about this yesterday, Dan, but I think this weekend will be a really good test and that a lot of decisions are going to follow based on this weekend, and I'm talking about "Tenet." You know, I'm going to go see it here in Connecticut where a lot of theaters have opened, because we've done a good job with COVID. People wear masks. It's very reduced capacity, but a lot of people are not ready to go to a theater yet. So I think the numbers from the end of this holiday weekend for how "Tenet" does in this limited theatrical release will tell you a lot, and I think you'll also see a lot of dissecting of Warner Brothers decision to go ahead and put "Tenet" out in theaters versus Disney's decision of putting "Mulan" straight on Disney Plus.

You know, there's going to be a lot of second guessing. Well, who did the right thing? Who was smarter? Especially if "Mulan" is not the mega hit they expect if too many people balk at that $30 rental price. So I think be a while before there's a cadence. But, you know, "Black Widow," the next Marvel movie with Scarlett Johansson, Disney hasn't announced what it will do with that. And some people are saying, just put it on Disney Plus, and others are saying, no, no, hold off, what's the rush? Wait till theaters are fully opened, and then it's going to do big numbers in theaters. We'll see.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Dan, can you tell me more about "Mulan," though? I never saw the original. I doubt I'll see this one. I know I'm going to save $30, but if I wanted to, I could see it for free?

DAN ROBERTS: You can't see it for free yet. Now, according to reports of an early Disney document that a film website found, they're planning on making a free for all Disney Plus subscribers in December. Although once that was reported, Disney scrubbed that date, I think because they don't want to yet commit to that, because what if it's selling really well through December? Then they don't want to give it up for free too soon.

But let's be clear, "Mulan" just today hits Disney Plus. You have to already be a Disney Plus subscriber, which has a monthly fee, and then you pay $30 to get it. Now, that might sound outrageous, but it's not a one time rental. It gets added to your Disney Plus library. You can re-watch it over and over. So it comes out today. I mean, I'm going to pay the $30. Eventually, I think we're going to watch it. We're excited about it.

I should mention news-wise what's interesting is the lead actress in the movie, Liu Yifei, is actually facing some calls for protests in Hong Kong because of support she showed last year for Hong Kong police. So Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters are not happy about that. I don't necessarily think that's going to become a huge threat to the movie, but it's something that we should all follow closely.

ADAM SHAPIRO: I know that the team "On the Move" this morning was upset that this film will not have Mushu, I think it was, a song from the original, because this is not a musical, so--

DAN ROBERTS: Oh, the character from the original. That's right. I agree. I'm disappointed about that. But man, the original is just one of my favorites, so I'm excited for the live action. By the way, Adam, quickly, I haven't been a huge fan of those Disney live action remakes overall, but this one, I have high hopes.

ADAM SHAPIRO: I think the last Disney live action I saw was "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" last century.