"As many of you know, Destin, our director, has a new-born baby. He wanted to exercise additional caution given the current environment and decided to get tested for Covid-19 today.

"He is currently self-isolating under the recommendation of his doctor. While he waits for the results of the test, we are suspending first-unit production in an abundance of caution until he gets the results this coming week. Second unit and off production will continue as normal."

The memo promised that crew would receive an update by Tuesday.

"This is an unprecedented time," the memo continued. "We appreciate everyone's understanding as we work through this."

The decision to halt production temporarily follows last week's shutdown on Baz Luhrmann's Elvis Presley biopic, which was due to begin shooting at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast on Monday.