Paramount Sued Insurance Company Over 7 Covid Shutdowns

Vrinda Gupta
Vrinda Gupta
Paramount Sued Insurance Company Over 7 Covid Shutdowns

Tom Cruise starrer Mission Impossible 7 is due to be released in May 2022. However, the production has been stalled. The delay in production is due to covid shutdowns in Italy and United Kingdom. Reportedly, the production has been stalled 7 times due to the prevailing pandemic situation. Between February 2020 and June 2021, the filming of the movie Mission: Impossible 7 was stalled four times in Italy and three times in the UK. After many failed attempts of filming in the United Kingdom and Abu Dhabi, the project was interrupted 7 times in a span of 18 months.

Why did Paramount Sue Chubb?

Paramount Pictures filed a lawsuit against the firm’s Insurer on Monday. As the Insurer failed to cover for the major losses incurred due to Covid-19 shutdowns. Chubb, Paramount’s insurer, said that they will only pay $1 million under its ‘civil authority‘ policy.  However, Paramount said that they had a ‘cast insurance policy‘ which had a limit of $100 million. The Cast Insurance policy is one that covers losses that might be incurred due to film’s key personnel. For instance, the lead actor Tom Cruise or Director Christopher McQuarrie is unavailable due to sickness, kidnapping, or death.

Therefore, Paramount claims that pandemic related shutdowns should be covered under the cast insurance policy as it prevents the key personnel from getting sick. However, Chubb is of the view that Covid shutdowns come under the civil authority policy as they are government-mandated shutdowns. And, they carry a limit of $1 million.

The Dispute Explained

The production of Mission: Impossible 7 had to begin on 24th February 2020 in Venice, Italy.  However, at that the time Paramount said that they were postponing the production due to a ban on public gatherings and ‘out of an abundance of caution. In the lawsuit, it is mentioned that one of the people at the set has become sick. It is not mentioned that whether the person was an ‘irreplaceable‘ person. Neither it is mentioned in the suit whether the person got Covid or some other illness. Although, Chubb paid $5 million as the person was covered under the cast insurance policy.

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Production was all set to begin in March. But again interrupted due to restrictions imposed by the Italian government. It was then further pushed to July. However, in October 2020 there were 2 outbreaks on the set which caused delays in production.

In fact. the lawsuit does not state the amount Paramount is seeking from the insurance company. But it has been stated that $5 million is a small portion of the losses suffered.

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