'Mission: Impossible 7' studio sues Chubb over COVID-19 claims
Paramount Pictures is challenging the denial of coverage for losses it suffered due to filming delays during the pandemic.
Paramount Pictures, the studio behind countless blockbusters, is taking Federal Insurance Co., part of Chubb Ltd., to court over the denial of insurance coverage for losses Paramount claims it suffered due to delays and other interruptions during the filming of “Mission: Impossible 7″ amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The California Central District Court lawsuit states that the insurer issued a $100 million policy to Paramount that was designed to insure against losses resulting from production delays and interruptions. During the production of the new “Mission: Impossible” film, the studio incurred significant losses due to the “threat posed to covered persons by SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, the orders of civil authorities restricting or preventing production from continuing as planned, and Paramount’s efforts to reduce or prevent losses that otherwise would be insured under the policy,” the complaint reads.
Production on “Mission: Impossible 7″ was originally scheduled to begin on Feb. 24, 2020, in Venice, Italy. However, on Feb. 21, Paramount shut down its plans due to the illness of a covered person. Then, filming was rescheduled to begin in March 2020 until the Italian government imposed a quarantine order, shutting production down for a second time. Filming was halted for the third time in Oct. 2020 due to an outbreak of COVID-19 among the crew and for the fourth time later that month. After the film was moved from Italy to the United Kingdon, production was interrupted three additional times totaling seven delays over the course of filming.
Paramount provided Federal with information about its losses over the 18 months since COVID-19 first caused production shutdowns.
Yet, despite Paramount’s losses being “well within the limits” of the policy, Federal refused to pay the full amount of claims, the complaint asserts. Instead, Paramount alleges Federal categorized the losses as subject to only one covered category that provided only $1 million in coverage. Ultimately, Federal paid only a small portion of the studio’s claims — $5 million associated with the covered person’s illness in Feb. 2020 — thus, “breaching the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”
Just days following the lawsuit’s filing, Paramount announced its plan to delay the release dates of “Mission: Impossible 7″ and another Tom Cruise-led film, “Top Gun: Maverick,” to 2022 amidst a surge of the Delta variant.
The case is Paramount Pictures Corp. v. Federal Insurance Co., 21-cv-06975, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).
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