'CopShop' Thriller Starring Gerard Butler And Frank Grillo Pauses Production After Crew Members Test Positive For COVID-19

Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo don't play characters who live by society's rules. But their upcoming action thriller CopShop has to follow the coronavirus (COVID-19) safety protocol rules just like everyone else, especially after three crew members recently tested positive for COVID-19. Production has been temporarily brought to a halt while the crew members are isolated and put in quarantine.

Deadline reports that three crew members at the Georgia set of CopShop, a crime thriller directed by The Grey filmmaker Joe Carnahan, have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing production to a halt.

"We learned this morning that three crew members have tested positive for COVID-19," producer Warren Gotz told Deadline in a statement. "We immediately paused production proactively. The safety of our cast and crew is our greatest priority. We are contact tracing everyone in the production at this time. Those who tested positive were isolated from the vast majority of our crew, including our actors and director. An extensive set of protocols were implemented for this production from the beginning and we remain dedicated to ensuring they are followed. If test results are negative, we will resume production according to our established safety guidelines."

The film, which takes place in a small-town police station that "becomes the unlikely battleground between a professional hitman (Butler), a smart rookie female cop, and a double-crossing con man (Grillo) who seeks refuge behind bars with no place left to run," had just begun principal photography in Georgia when production had to be halted in the wake of the positive COVID-19 tests. Copshop is also slated to shoot in New Mexico. It's unclear if the crew members were in much contact with stars Butler and Grillo. Production may still be in its early days, as the casting for the female lead has not yet been announced.

CopShop is just the latest Hollywood production to be hit with delays in the wake of positive COVID-19 tests — an inevitability of getting back to work amid an ongoing pandemic. While strict safety protocols are widely practiced by productions, productions like The Batman and Scream 5 have registered positive COVID-19 tests, with the former affecting star Robert Pattinson. Curiously, Scream 5 continued production after a few crew members tested positive, due to the "pod" or "zone" approach, in which crew members and cast are separated into teams to limit exposure. In the case of CopShop, at least the production seems law-abiding enough to halt production in the wake of the positive tests.