SFF author David Weber recovering from COVID

Good news has emerged: science fiction and fantasy author David Weber has been released from hospital after being admitted for treatment for COVID-19, as related by his friend and colleague Harry Turtledove.

Weber, 68, is the author of the popular Honor Harrington and Safehold series. He was hospitalised last month after contracting the virus, leading to an outpouring of well-wishing on social media. His wife, Sharon, was not hospitalised. I'm sure everyone wishes him a speedy recovery.

This is good news, especially coming after the sad news that SF author Ben Bova had passed away from COVID-related complications in December.

New DUNE film delayed ten months

In unsurprising news, the release of the new Dune movie from director Denis Villeneuve has been pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the length of the delay is surprising, the the film being delayed a full ten months until 1 October 2021.

The film had originally been due to arrive in mid-December, and the marketing hype had just started up with the first trailer and behind-the-scenes footage. However, the film's release date had been notably missing from all the build-up. As coronavirus cases began mounting up in Europe and the United States and release strategies for films like Tenet and Mulan gave disappointing returns, studios began delaying their films, often for the second or third time. No Time to Die, the 25th James Bond film, has been delayed until April next year, whilst the next Marvel movie, Black Widow, has fallen back to May.

The move has caused the British Cineworld chain and its US affiliate Regal Cinemas to shut down altogether, with the company expressing grave concerns about the long-term viability of the business. Some films, such as Bill and Ted Face the Music, have found success by switching to VOD services for their initial release, but that was always going to be an immense risk for the mega-budgeted Dune, especially since the film only adapts the first half of Frank Herbert's novel and the viability of a sequel is dependent on the film doing well. Warners and director Denis Villeneuve agreed that the film could only really debut on the big screen.

The delay of Dune will also likely have knock-on effects. Warner Brothers had delayed Wonder Woman 84 until Christmas Day, but that's also likely to fall back to a mid or late 2021 date. Meanwhile, Dune is now set to launch on the same day as its Warner's own The Batman, which will almost certainly have to move out of that slot as well.

Although the pandemic is having a huge impact on film releases, movie production is ramping up all over the world with the shooting of a number of films getting back underway, including Marvel films and the aforementioned The Batman. This could create a serious bottleneck issue with studios having too many big movies to release and not enough time to get them out the door. Already Marvel's plans to have storytelling synergy between their Disney+ TV shows and the next slate of films is being put at risk with the TV shows ready to roll but the films being constantly delayed.

Warners will be banking that by late 2021 the pandemic will be over or under control and a safe release strategy can be undertaken.

LAST OF US II delayed indefinitely due to coronavirus pandemic

The eagerly-awaited video game The Last of Us II has been indefinitely delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The movie and TV industries have been hit badly by the pandemic, which has seen almost the entire global TV and film production industries shut down until further notice. The video game industry has been much more bullish, developers announcing that they are much better equipped to work from home and some even citing the advantages of doing so. CD Projekt Red recently confirmed that, after a few days' delay whilst they transitioned to home working, they are full steam ahead on Cyberpunk 2077 (due for release in September) and a new game in The Witcher series.

However, it appears that whilst development work can continue from home, the pandemic is impacting on the ability to manufacture and deliver physical copies of the finished game. The release of Final Fantasy VII Remake, the first major release during the pandemic (Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons both managed to slip out just ahead of most countries going into lockdown), has become fragmented with some countries receiving their copies of the game almost two weeks ahead of the official release date, whilst other territories may not receive copies until after the date given worldwide delivery disruptions. There is also the matter of retailers such as Amazon low-prioritising entertainment products in favour of essential goods.

The Last of Us II is functionally complete and ready to roll, with Sony admitting the main problem is the practicalities surrounding the release of the game.

Fans will be hoping that other games will not be impacted, particularly the year's other big release, Cyberpunk 2077.

HBO is currently developing a Last of Us television series with Sony Television, with Chernobyl head writer Craig Mazin attached to write.

CD Projekt Red decentralises operations to continue work on CYBERPUNK 2077

With TV and film projects being suspended globally at a rate of knots in reaction to coronavirus, it's interesting to see the response from the video game industry. Poland's CD Projekt Red, who's forthcoming science fiction RPG Cyberpunk 2077 is the most eagerly-awaited game of the year, have revealed how they are tackling the issue via a public announcement on Twitter.

CDPR have switched to a fully decentralised, work-from-home ethos where developers will remotely log into servers to access the latest build of the game and provide updates, bug-checking and polish.

It should be noted that Cyberpunk 2077 is functionally complete: it was originally due for release in April and CDPR have noted they could still hit that date if they didn't mind releasing a buggy game, which they do. The bulk of the work left on the game at this stage is bug-testing, polish and a last round of work to make sure that the game releases in as perfect a condition as possible. Whether it is possible for a company like, say, Bethesda or Rockstar (who are hip-deep in developing multiple games, including Starfield, The Elder Scrolls VI and the rumoured Grand Theft Auto VI) to do the same thing much earlier in their games' development remains unclear.

That said, CDPR also confirmed recently that they are working on a new Witcher game which is much earlier in production, and presumably work on that game will also continue in this remote fashion.

The video game industry has flirted with remote working and decentralised production for years, with many small mods and indie projects being developed in such a way. However, forcing new employees to relocate to the company studio's physical location and attend in person has been the norm in larger studios for decades. It will be interesting to see if this adaptation becomes a permanent trend.

Coronavirus pandemic impacts on SFF projects worldwide

The filming of the Disney+ series Falcon and the Winter Soldier in Prague has been shut down in response to government restrictions on public gatherings in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the first major project to be impacted by the growing infection.

Falcon and the Winter Soldier's main production base is in Atlanta, Georgia, where the show has already been filming for several months. The Prague leg of the shooting was only expected to last for a week, with the expectation that the shoot will be moved elsewhere (possibly back to the United States). In this case, the cancellation of filming in the Czech capital is unlikely to be disastrous for the project, which has an August launch date.

A bigger question mark hangs over those productions based in the area which are currently ongoing: Amazon Prime Television is currently filming the first season of The Wheel of Time and the second season of Carnival Row in and around the city. The Wheel of Time is on its last leg of filming, with production currently scheduled to last until early to mid-May. Carnival Row started shooting on 11 November, with production based in the Barrandov Studio in Prague.

The Czech Republic currently has a relatively low rate of coronavirus infection, with 94 infections and 0 deaths as of yesterday, but the country borders several European nations experiencing more severe outbreaks (most notably Germany) and is battening down the hatches in preparation for more cases.

With the infection reaching pandemic status and spreading across the world, it is likely that more productions and projects will be impacted on a global level. The release of the latest James Bond film, Fast and the Furious 9 and A Quiet Place Part 2 have been delayed (FF9 by a full year) in response to the crisis and Disney are considering whether to do the same with their next MCU movie Black Widow, which opens on 1 May. Numerous genre films and TV shows are currently filming which could be impacted in the coming weeks, including Season 2 of The Witcher in the UK and Season 1 of The Lord of the Rings: The Second Age in New Zealand.

Major SFF events and gatherings worldwide are also under threat: Eastercon in the UK is still due to go ahead next week, but may be impacted if the UK government imposes tougher restrictions in this country. WorldCon in New Zealand in August is also still scheduled. Relatively remote New Zealand has only 5 confirmed cases of the virus and has locked them down pretty tight and may stand a reasonable chance of riding out the situation, but may also impose tougher travelling restrictions as the worldwide situation changes.

The annual E3 video game conference in June has also been cancelled, but for the moment the San Diego Comic-Con in July and next month's WonderCon in Anaheim, California are still planned to go ahead.