What's news: Blumhouse plots a return to filming, ViacomCBS execs tout the company's upside, Disney's blunt warning to Disney Springs visitors, Cinemark downgraded, Breeders renewed, ESPN sets another basketball doc, there's an Indigo Girls doc in the works, interviews with Lisa Kudrow and Ryan Seacrest. Plus: Obituaries for Fred Willard, Lynn Shelton and Phyllis George. --Alex Weprin

 Blumhouse Plots a Return to the Universal Lot

►Blumhouse is just about ready to return to production on the Universal lot. A small team of filmmakers and studio execs are working out how to proceed on a $6.5 million project that could become a blueprint for COVID-19 era productions, Kim Masters reports. Cast and crew would live in a hotel nearby and a set of safety protocols would be in place. Forget craft services, for example. Also, forget about insurance that would cover a shutdown due to a coronavirus-related outbreak of illness. 

--“Blumhouse and Universal aren’t moving forward with any plans until we get the greenlight from city, county and public-health officials," a source tells Masters. "None of this pre-production planning work is being conducted on the lot itself. A small team of filmmakers and studio executives are currently working on those plans remotely. Safety of everyone involved is a huge priority and nobody wants to rush into anything.” The story.

+There is a global push to release safety guidelines for film and TV production. U.K. TV giants, including the BBC, ITV, Sky, Channel 4, Viacom's Channel 5 and others on Monday jointly introduced new industrywide guidelines for producing television safely in the weeks and months ahead amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. The details.

►ViacomCBS chair Shari Redstone touts "significant" growth opportunities at virtual annual meeting. "These are extraordinary times," she said about the novel coronavirus pandemic before emphasizing her “passion for our incredible company” and “the significant opportunity” it has, adding that "we totally believe that the stock is dramatically undervalued." CEO Bob Bakish, meanwhile, was asked about potential acquisitions, saying "there are no must-have assets" for the firm and investors should not expect any "material" deals in the current environment, emphasizing several times that any M&A would be done in a disciplined way. The story.

►Cinemark analyst downgrades stock on film slate, reopening, Brazil issues. B. Riley FBR's Eric Wold cites "uncertainty around key state opening timelines," the second-half film slate and a "worsening COVID-19 situation in Brazil" in moving to a "neutral" rating and cutting his price target to $13. More.

►Disney issues blunt disclaimer days before small portion of Orlando resort reopens. Disney Springs shopping and dining complex will once again welcome guests beginning Wednesday. And while Disney has made it clear that "enhanced health and safety measures" will be the utmost importance — guests still assume all the risk. "An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. COVID-19 is an extremely contagious disease that can lead to severe illness and death," reads a disclaimer on the Disney World website. More.

►How I'm Living Now: Lisa Kudrow, actress and producer. Kudrow, who is spending her time at home in L.A. with her husband and son, revealed that her mother died in late February. Although thankful she could have a funeral, she recalled instructing her loved ones to avoid hugging. Kudrow, who stars opposite Steve Carell in Netflix's upcoming comedy series Space Force (dropping May 29), opens up about the loss of her mother, getting her well-traveled NBC series Who Do You Think You Are? back on track and why a Friends reunion over Zoom simply won't do. The interview.

 A Weekend of Notable Deaths...

►Fred Willard, master of comic cluelessness, dies at 86. Willard, the clever comic actor who played clueless characters to perfection on Fernwood 2 Night, Everybody Loves Raymond and as a member of a great ensemble in several Christopher Guest mockumentaries died Friday night in Los Angeles of natural causes, his agent Michael Eisenstadt told The Hollywood Reporter. The obituary.

+Hollywood pays tribute: Steve Martin, Christina Applegate, Steve Carrell and others paid tribute to the comic actor. More.

►Lynn Shelton, director of Humpday and Your Sister's Sister, dies at 54. Shelton, a leading voice of the new American independent cinema movement who directed the intimate darlings Humpday, Your Sister's Sister and My Effortless Brilliance and episodes of Mad Men and Little Files Everywhere died Friday in Los Angeles as a result of a previously unidentified blood disorder, her longtime publicist Adam Kersh announced. The obituary.

+The tributes: Shelton's partner, Marc Maron, the cast of Little Fires Everywhere and others paid tribute to the director. More.

►Phyllis George, TV host and pioneer on The NFL Today, dies at 70. George, the former Miss Texas and Miss America who made history as a sportscaster on the CBS pregame show The NFL Today died Thursday after a long struggle with a blood disorder at a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, a family spokeswoman announced. The obituary.

... Frank Bielec, a designer on the TLC series Trading Spaces, has died. He was 72... Geno Silva, the character actor perhaps best known for playing The Skull, the hitman who takes out Al Pacino's Tony Montana in the explosive climax of Scarface, has died. He was 72... Michel Piccoli, the prolific French actor known for his leading roles in such films as Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt and Luis Buñuel's Belle de jour, has died. He was 94...

 FX Renews 'Breeders'

►FX has renewed its comedy Breeders, starring Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard, for a second season. Created by Simon Blackwell, Chris Addision and Freeman, the series explores the trials and tribulations of parenthood through Freeman's and Haggard's characters, Paul and Ally. The renewal comes three weeks after the show wrapped its inaugural season on the Disney-owned cable network. The story.

+Call it The Last Dance Effect. With the popular Michael Jordan/Chicago Bulls docuseries finished, ESPN is looking for ways to further tap that well. ESPN will show Game 6: The Movie on Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET, following a rebroadcast of episodes nine and 10 of The Last Dance. The episode will feature game footage from the 1998 NBA Finals captured by five NBA Entertainment cameras and marks the first time that the game has been available to watch in high-definition. More.

►There's an Indigo Girls documentary in the works. On Her Shoulders director Alexandria Bombach is helming a film about folk rock icons Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, using never-before-seen archival footage. The story.

►IBC in Amsterdam canceled due to coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, the annual motion picture and television technology convention and exhibition attracted an estimated 56,000 delegates from 150 countries to the Dutch city. More.

►Taika Waititi will lead a star-studded James and the Giant Peach readalong. Chris and Liam Hemsworth, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett and others will take part in the fundraiser for COVID-19 efforts in conjunction with the Roald Dahl Story Company. The readalong will be posted on the company's YouTube channel. More.

►Bill Pullman responds to Donald Trump's altered Independence Day clip. President Donald Trump on Saturday shared a heavily altered video clip from the 1996 film Independence Day in which it appears that he gives the iconic speech from the President of the United States. Here's what Pullman told THR. More.

►Awards Chatter podcast: Ryan Seacrest, "the hardest working man in show business," according to The New York Times, reflects on his lifelong obsession with broadcasting, the weekend decision that changed his life and live TV's uncertain future in a discussion with Scott Feinberg on the latest episode. Listen.

+American Idol's season 18 winner was crowned in its first at-home finale last night. More.

In other news...

--Disney+ could reach as many as 100 million subscribers in India by 2025, according to a report released Monday by research consultancy Media Partners Asia.

--Spike Lee has released the official trailer for his upcoming Netflix feature Da 5 Bloods.

--Warner Bros. has announced it will rerelease Christopher Nolan's iconic The Dark Knight trilogy into theaters in Hong Kong and Taiwan for a limited time.

--Serena Williams, Deepak Chopra, and Mark Cuban are among those set for a new wellness series from Verizon Media.

--Elvis Presley's Graceland says it will reopen Thursday after it shut down tours and exhibits due to the new coronavirus outbreak.

--Barack Obama offers advice to graduating students amid pandemic: "Don't be afraid."

--The Matrix helmer Lilly Wachowski will not tolerate Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump making any reference to her 1999 film.

--The Flash actor Logan Williams' cause of death has been revealed.

What else we're reading...

--"As cable TV fades, fearing 'the end of Comedy Central'" [NY Times]

--"Is Ronan Farrow too good to be true?" [NY Times]

--"After the coronavirus, the race to resume film production goes global" [LA Times]

--"Netflix is starting to restore normal streaming quality in parts of Europe" [The Verge]

--"Belgravia’s Harriet Walter on the finale, big secret, and the potential for a sequel" [Vanity Fair]

Today's birthdays: Chow Yun-fat, 65, Tina Fey, 50, Mark Mothersbaugh, 70, Yannick Noah, 60, Miriam Margolyes, 79.