Hollywood grinds to halt production amid coronavirus woes

The seventh installment of Tom Cruise's blockbuster "Mission Impossible" franchise, set to shoot in Venice, Italy, went dark when the entire country went into lockdown due to the devastating impact of the coronavirus there. To date, Italy is one of the countries hardest hit by the virus in Europe.

And Antonio Banderas, fresh off his award season run in 2019 for "Pride and Glory," had to postpone his and Penelope Cruz starrer, "Official Competition," that had been set to shoot in Spain.

One of the lone holdouts, Warner Bros. "Matrix 4" has not declared a production hiatus yet. Since it is shooting on a closed sound stage in Berlin, Germany, they opted to amp up their safety protocols for the time being instead of shutting down production entirely.

On the television side, Disney is also putting 16 pilots on ice that had been slated for production across its various subsidiaries, while Warner Bros. Television Group temporarily pulled the plug on over halted 70 TV series and new pilots, and Netflix shuttered all their scripted film and television production in the United States and Canada.

Fellow networks, cable-nets and streamer, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, TNT, CW, FX, HBO, Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), Amazon, Showtime, Lifetime, Hallmark and others, are also closing their doors and will remain in limbo until they reassess the situation in two weeks' time.

"We are going home now for at least two weeks and waiting to see how the coronavirus situation evolves," hit show, "Grey's Anatomy" executive producers, Krista Vernoff, Debbie Allen and James Parriott, told their cast and crew.

"This decision was made to ensure the health and safety of the whole cast and crew and the safety of our loved ones outside of work, and it was made in accordance with Mayor Garcetti's suggestion that we not gather in groups of more than 10," they explained in a letter.

The production graveyard also silenced all hit daytime and late-night talk shows - which bear the added risk of relying on live studio audiences. Casualties included such high profile shows as NBC's "Late Show with Jimmy Fallon", "Jimmy Kimmel Live", "The View", "Ellen", "Real Time With Bill Maher", "The Wendy Williams Show", and all others.

PBS's "Closer to Truth" opted to keep working but go virtual.

"All staff is working remotely and by teleconferencing," writer/producer/on-air host, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, told Xinhua. "We want, first, our 'Closer to Truth' family to be safe, and second, to alleviate their anxiety, which undermines creativity!"