Katla

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Director Baltasar Kormakur has returned to the set to resume the production of the new show, insisting they enforce strict measures to keep everyone safe.
May 4, 2020
AceShowbiz – Director Baltasar Kormakur has resumed production on new Netflix series “Katla” after imposing strict coronavirus rules on set.
The filmmaker behind action-adventure hits like “Everest” and “Adrift” was working on the project in his native Iceland when the pandemic took hold and stay-at-home orders were imposed in March 2020, but now work on the eight-part supernatural series has resumed, becoming one of the first major filming projects to restart amid the lockdown – but only because severe measures have been enforced to keep castmembers and crew safe.
“It was done in a safe way,” Kormakur tells Deadline. “I honestly believe that you are probably more safe on that set than anywhere else.”
Katla is being shot in an isolated studio near Reykjavik and everyone working on the project is regularly tested for COVID-19.
“We tested every single person and that’s also very helpful because the DNA company, deCode Genetics, has been helping the government and they are a private company, so we could get them to test our crew,” Baltasar shares. “Every morning, we check temperatures on everyone. Everything is sanitised regularly, there are security guards on set at all times.”
“I built this plan in tandem with Netflix and Icelandic health company and they were very trusting and graceful to let me actually try this and see, while this is easing up, whether this could be done. Because the whole world cannot be on lockdown at the same time. There are going to be different times when things change.”
The strict testing on the “Katla” set has actually unearthed asymptomatic cases that would have gone undetected if production did not resume.
“We’ve caught cases which wouldn’t have been caught, and they didn’t get onto the set – so there has been no transmission on set,” he shares. “I better knock on wood now, but these people would have been walking around and wouldn’t have known (they had coronavirus), because they didn’t have any symptoms. We quarantined a few people, but they could work from home. If a person was caught with a fever, they got tested for the virus, but it never got onto the set.”

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