CMU School of Drama


Thursday, October 06, 2022

‘Rust’ filming to resume after Alec Baldwin shooting lawsuit settled

CANVAS Arts: The family of a cinematographer shot and killed by Alec Baldwin on the set of the film "Rust" has agreed to settle a lawsuit against the actor and the movie's producers, and producers aim to restart the project in January despite unresolved workplace safety sanctions.

7 comments:

Alex Reinard said...

This was an interesting update to me because I had forgot about this whole incident. I clicked on this article because I was sort of shocked to see the name 'Alec Baldwin' again, after seeing it all over the internet last year. I guess I never actually expected Rust to continue being produced, and I'm surprised the actually will continue to produce it. I myself still don't know what happened, just that Baldwin shot Halyna, a cinematographer, and it still is a mystery how live ammunition got onto the set. In my eyes, it seems like the entire incident was a honest, albeit fatal, mistake, though there were definitely shortcomings in safety that could've averted the death. It's important to look at the positive outcome from this situation, though; that is that the regulation of guns on sets will be stricter in the future, and hopefully prevent further accidental deaths.

Sophie Rodriguez said...

I had no idea that this movie was planning to continue filming. I genuinely feel as though this movie won’t be received well by the public, or that many people will have positive things to say about it – even if it turns out to be a well-made, good movie. I know that I would not be able to watch this movie and give it a “fair” shot, after knowing what happened. I’m also curious as to what resuming filming will even be like – did people leave this project? What was the hiring process like for people that would replace those who left (if any)? What will it be like to handle the prop guns on this set? I just have a lot of questions, and I wonder how the decision was even made to resume filming, I understand it is a tribute in a way, but I also just think about it from a bystander’s point of view. All in all, it’s a shame that so many protocols were overlooked and that this incident happened to begin with.

Brynn Sklar said...

Last week I wrote a comment about the DA possibly charging up to four people with manslaughter so having a follow up is really nice. First of all, why did they announce the settlement through an Instagram post. That feels so icky and unprofessional to me. Baldwin is clearly not the only one to blame for this but also why would he lie in his statement? “Baldwin has said the gun went off accidentally and that he did not pull the trigger. But a recent FBI forensic report found the weapon could not not have fired unless the trigger was pulled.” I hate that they are continuing to film this movie. They are knee deep in fines from New Mexico's Occupational Health and Safety Bureau and have a bloody history now. Publicity-wise, this decision makes no sense. Producer-wise, I am sure they have too much money in this to just quit now.

DMSunderland said...

Honestly shocked to see production resume on this after all of the coverage that this has gotten in the aftermath of the on-set killing of the crew member.

Unfortunately, this must just be the way it is. the entertainment industry doesn't care about the people working within it and it will never be ready to take care of the individuals that call upon the entertainment industry for a livelihood. I'm hoping the individuals affected by the untimely and completely avoidable demise of one of it's cinematographers. That person didn't wake up that day expecting negligence of SOMEONE, even if it's a mystery how live ammunition made it into a firearm that was meant to be used as a prop. I agree that using firearms capable of firing live ammunition is no longer really necessary in a world where CGI is as powerful as it is. Hopefully the family of Halyna Hutchins can find peace.

Megan Hanna said...

I was in a meeting recently and we talked about the rules put in place for prop weaponry. It was interesting to hear something along the lines of “We changed this a year ago because of the Rust incident.” Like many others I can’t believe that it has already been a year since it happened and to be honest I truly do not know how I feel about it resuming especially since there are many loose ends that are not tied up. I am wondering how much they have had to actually change the script and filming to possibly get rid of guns, not because they can’t use fake ones but because all of the original cast is coming back and all of them experienced an extremely traumatic event. I am wondering if Alec specifically would be able to handle acting with another prop gun. Additionally, do you think this is what the cinematographer would have wanted or is this a project that should stay unfinished?

Owen Sahnow said...

It’s amazing to me that after all this time, the investigation is still a massive Charlie Foxtrot. This just means that the civil lawsuit has stopped, but it seems like all that money for a criminal lawsuit means that Baldwin and the company are not out of the woods yet. As with any incident, there were so many things that went wrong. It’s super interesting that their solution to appease the widower was to make him an executive producer. I’d be curious to know how much he’s paid in the role of executive producer because we’ve entered this very weird world of how much money is a human life worth. PennDOT says $1 Million dollars but that starts to enter a morally gray area. The other thing that’s odd is this production doesn’t seem like it’s being run very well so it’s odd to me that this guy would want to be on the leadership team. It’ll be interesting to see how well this movie does in the theater because this inadvertent publicity boost might make them more money in the long run.

Madison Gold said...

I was hoping that we would have more information on this issue at this point. I never in a million years thought that they would resume filming this movie. I thought for sure it was going to be shelved. I’m not sure what that says about the company, producers, or all of the people involved that are coming back according to the article. I do also wonder if there are going to be changes to the script, like are they going to take out the scene that was being filmed when the cinematographer or keep it in the movie. I hope that tasteful decisions are going to be made following the nasty decision to keep working. I’m sure that they have their reasons. I also wonder how this whole travesty is going effect the box office when it gets there. I’m not sure that I am going to be supporting its release in theaters.