2020 was gearing up to become an incredible, milestone year for filmmaker Rachel Morrison. The Oscar-nominated cinematographer, who has worked with folks like Ryan Coogler, Dee Rees, and Rick Famuyiwa, was all set to enjoy a nice, straightforward production of her directorial debut, “Flint Strong,” when COVID-19 hit the US and shut down all film productions for months. Now, she’s unsure when her film will finish production and the delay might actually prevent her from working on what would easily be her biggest project to date, “Black Panther 2.”
Speaking to IndieWire, Morrison spoke about how COVID-19 affected the production of “Flint Strong,” which is written by Barry Jenkins and tells the story of Olympic gold medalist Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, a boxer from Flint, Michigan. Unfortunately, the production was shut down just two days into a 41-day shoot. And given the fact that there are certain requirements for shooting the film, it’s unclear when production might ramp up again.
“This film is literally everything you don’t want to be in Covid,” the director said. “It’s boxing, it’s crowds, it’s Olympic boxing, and it’s a teen movie with prom scenes and teens getting close together. It’s an impossible task right now. In our film, there is probably just three scenes that are film-able right now. All the rest are impossible undertakings until we get a better handle on testing.”
Because of this issue, the film can’t restart production this fall, like many other films. In fact, Morrison is now shooting for January 2021 to begin filming once again. And if that happens, she may have to forgo working on a project she’s been anticipating greatly— “Black Panther 2.”
“I was supposed to deliver my movie and then a few months later hop on to ‘Black Panther 2,’” Morrison explained. “Now, there might be some issue of those overlapping. Ryan and I talk regularly. He called me up cause he had a dream a few ago that he was three weeks into production and this male DP comes out holding a camera and he’s like, ‘That’s not my DP. Where the fuck is Rachel?’”
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She continued, “If we had gone back in September, I think we could make it, but now it’s a bit of a moment of truth for everyone to realize if my movie is definitely going back in January that I probably won’t be able to do ‘Panther,’ which is devastating to me. If we can’t go back in January and we get pushed into fall of next year, maybe I can do ‘Panther.’”
Obviously, there are still a number of variables at play that will determine if Morrison can rejoin Coogler for “Black Panther 2.” First, she has to finish her film, which might start in January or could be pushed even further. Then, of course, there’s also the possibility that “Black Panther 2” doesn’t begin on time, which could throw an even bigger wrench into the plans. At this point, we just have to wait and see.
