The Hollywood Reporter: A year after Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of Rust, the producers, still facing civil litigation and under a cloud of potential criminal liability, are looking to finish the film in the next few months. Key to this gambit is a private settlement with Hutchins’ estate, announced Oct. 5, which is pending court approval. The plan both ends the wrongful death action brought by Hutchins’ family on Feb. 15 and makes her widower, Matthew, an executive producer on the movie.
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The previous article I read about this didn’t mention that the settlement had not officially been approved by the court. Now we’re at this point where they’re trying to equate human life to a dollar value. The LLC (Rust Movie Productions) only assets are the cash in their bank accounts and the rights to the movie along with the film shot so far. Matthew Hitchnins isn’t trying to cash in, but the only recourse right now is money to make up for the lost income of his late wife. It seems that this is the most profitable method because liquidating the assets would stop at the amount that there is so this is a potentially more profitable plan. It also seems that the criminal complaint seems to be chugging along not in the public eye, so it will be interesting to see what comes of that because if there turns out to be criminal negligence and someone serves jail time, the production could get put on hold again.
Wow, there is a lot of information in this article. I am surprised to see that Matthew Hutchins is dropping the law suit. Although from the quotes from him in the article it seems like it was turning into a headache and a half with many responsible parties and no clear answer as to who would be the guilty party in the end. It also seems like there are a number of different people with different issues against the production company who will still be going through with their multitude of law suits. I will be interested to see how the suit from gaffer Serge Svetnoy and medic Cherlyn Schaefer ends. I think they absolutely have a point in saying that the company did not hire enough trained professionals. I am not sure how an accident like this could have occurred if there was a crew full of qualified people. I will definitely be following that case as well as the release of the movie to see what changes occur.
So, a lot of this is legal and financial jargon that sort of makes sense. But essentially, it seems that Halyna Hutchin’s widower is becoming an executive producer of the same movie on which his wife was killed. Because the producers created an LLC for the production, there are limited assets that could be seized for a settlement, and mostly only profitable if the movie was finished. Publicly, he is also calling the whole situation an accident. This might be true, but it's an accident that could have been avoided with proper saftey measures. Rich producers skimping on saftey to make more money makes me want to vomit. I hope they are held accountable, and that the conversations continue to make sets safe. I think it’ll be interesting to see how people respond to the movie when it comes out, and how popular it will be. Certainly will get a lot of press because of the fatal shooting, I wonder if the content of the movie will draw attention too.
This in entire production seems to have been a complete disaster, especially in regards to safety measures. The article pointed out the different reasons why Matthew Hutchins would drop the suit and take on a credit as an Executive Producer. And it’s not my place to comment on how someone handles their grief, especially in the case of something like this. While it doesn’t look like the civil suits that are being brought against the producing teams of Rust are going to go anywhere, it seems like something is going to happen with the criminal investigation. This production is an example of the danger caused by cutting corners when it comes to safety, and it took someone dying for anything to be done. I seriously hope that these people are held accountable, and that this reminds us of the changes that need to happen in the industry in order to make it a safer place.
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