Film and TV Production in Czech Republic to Resume Immediately

By Leo Barraclough

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Film and TV production in the Czech Republic, one of the world’s leading destinations for international shoots, is to resume immediately after the government lifted restrictions on public gatherings, imposed as part of the fight against COVID-19.

Among the international productions that will be able to resume their shoots are season two of Legendary Entertainment/Amazon’s “Carnival Row” with Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne, the first season of Amazon’s fantasy series “Wheel of Time,” starring Rosamund Pike, Marvel Studios’ “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and the Netflix movie “Transatlantic 473.”

The country reopened its borders to European citizens on April 27, and the European Union is expected to lift its recommendation that citizens from non-European countries are denied entry on May 15, but they do not have to wait for that date. “This is only a recommendation, not a prohibition, as in the case of the U.S. administration, which issued a recommendation not to travel,” Czech film commissioner Pavlina Zipkova said.

The Czech Republic was the first country in Europe to develop self-regulatory guidelines as protection against the spread of COVID-19 during filming.

“Adherence to these recommendations, including testing actors every 14 days during production and, of course, maintaining sanitation standards on location and in studios, will reduce the possibility of infection to an absolute minimum,” Zipkova said.

Foreign actors and crew members must have undergone a COVID-19 test at the time they leave their home countries, and will undergo a second test within 72 hours of arrival in the Czech Republic, and remain quarantined until they receive a negative result. In this way they can avoid undergoing a 14-day quarantine upon arrival.