A majority of Hollywood productions are being paused due to the SAG-AFTRA strike and its extension due to the AMPTP walking away from the recent round of negotiations. Other smaller features have been to move forward or have found workarounds like hiring non-SAG actors or getting union exemptions. Director Neill Blomkamp (“Gran Turismo”) was set to begin shooting an alien abduction thriller titled “They Found Us” with Swedish-American actor Joel Kinnaman (“Silent Night”) set to play a father who takes his daughter camping in the Utah wilderness only to be attacked by a hostile alien and fight this beastly creature to avoid being abducted to a terrifying alien world.

There is now a report from Deadline that the film, currently in pre-production, has paused its prep stage ahead of principal photography in Saudi Arabia and was backed up by AGC Studios. It isn’t expected to get back up and running until a rework of its finance structure. This is the same studio that was recently behind Richard Linkleter’s buzzy hitman comedy “Hit Man” starring Glen Powell and Adria Arjona.

“The move to restructure the finance plan behind the independent movie comes just as tension in the region is growing due to the Israel-Gaza crisis.”

“They Found Us” has a script that hails from screenwriter Jeremy Slater, who previously worked on Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy” and Marvel’s “Moon Knight.”

AGC made the following statement to Deadline:

“We’ve taken the reluctant decision with our valued partners at Neom to pause pre-production on the film while we further explore a cross-border legal and funding structure that makes all stakeholders comfortable. In deciding when to resume pre-production we’ll obviously assess what impact macro events in the region may have on obtaining production insurances and travel plans. Our friends at Neom and Yellow Camel have been nothing but collaborative and reliable partners at every stage of the journey thus far and we look forward to returning to prep on the film with them at the earliest sensible opportunity.”

Given that it wasn’t set to begin shooting for weeks/months it could allow enough time to get things ironed out without any major disruption. Then again, plenty of films have gone on hiatus just before filming and just simply never ended up happening. Some of the previous Blomkamp projects that ended up not getting in front of cameras include “Alien 5,” “RoboCop Returns,” and a live-action “Halo” film at 20th Century Fox that was going to be produced by Peter Jackson.

Blomkamp, of course, is no stranger to the world of sci-fi and aliens as his first big feature film “District 9” focused on stranded alien refugees in South Africa alongside “Elysium” and “Chappie” set squarely within the cyberpunk genre exploring different angles of artificial intelligence and highly advanced technologies.

SOURCE: DEADLINE