Zendaya and John David Washington shot a secret movie during lockdown

(Image credit: Warner Bros/HBO)

Most of the film and television industry has been put on hold over the last few months due to the coronavirus. Filmmaking, after all, is a hugely collaborative process that often requires close contact with others. Against the odds, though, some projects have been filmed over the last few months.

First, we caught word of the horror movie Host, which tells the story of a virtual séance gone wrong. Now, Deadline reports that Zendaya, John David Washington and Sam Levinson – the creator of the HBO series Euphoria – have filmed and completed a feature-length movie from quarantine.

Titled Malcolm & Marie, filming took place between June 17 and July 2 at the Caterpillar House, an environmentally conscious glass building in California. All filming was done with the various acting and directing guilds' guidelines in place, and post-production has already wrapped. A still has already been released by Zendaya, who put the image on Twitter.

Malcolm & Marie pic.twitter.com/99RWzgLFbDJuly 8, 2020

So how did this movie – which apparently tells a Marriage Story-like story that will be conscious of what's going on in the world right now – come to be? The trade-publication says that after production on Euphoria season 2 shut down, Zendaya called Levinson to ask if a lockdown movie could be possible.

From there, Tenet's John David Washington joined the cast, and they assembled investors and producers to help bankroll the production. They also spoke to doctors to make sure everything would be safe while filming. The plan was to have the entire team take multiple COVID tests before quarantining in the Californian coastal city of Monterey.

"For two weeks, cast and crew wore masks, social distanced had their own separate dwellings with individual HVAC units, took hikes, rehearsed in the parking lot, and ate in designated spots food prepared by a chef who had been quarantined with the group. No one was allowed to leave the property," the report reads.

Once production started, no more than 12 people were allowed on set at any given time, crew members were only allowed near actors when wearing proper PPE, and extra time was allocated to getting the set clean and sterile. There were also temperature checks at the beginning and end of every day.

Jack Shepherd is the former Senior Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar. Jack used to work at The Independent as a general culture writer before specializing in TV and film for the likes of GR+, Total Film, SFX, and others. You can now find Jack working as a freelance journalist and editor.