Rust production will continue as Alec Baldwin reaches settlement with Halyna Hutchins’ estate
Hutchins' family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in February after the cinematographer died on set due to a misfired prop gun
Aux News Halyna Hutchins
Nearly a year after a shooting on the set of the film Rust led to the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza, a settlement has been reached between Hutchins’ estate and the film’s production, as well as star and producer Alec Baldwin, reports Deadline. The western will pick up filming once again in January 2023, with Hutchins’ husband Matthew Hutchins joining the production as executive producer.
Back in February, Hutchins’ family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin (who fired the prop gun), Rust Movie Productions, producers of the film, and a few other crew members for “reckless behavior and cost-cutting [that] led to the senseless death of Halyna Hutchins,” as said by attorney Brian Panish about the complaint.
In September, Rust Movie Productions denied liability in the October 21, 2021 incident where a prop firearm was discharged by Baldwin with live rounds. The production company argued that they didn’t employ armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who supervised gun safety on the Rust set.
However, despite the tragedy on set, the production is now moving forward. “We have reached a settlement, subject to court approval, for our wrongful death case against the producers of Rust, including Alec Baldwin and Rust Movie Productions, LLC. As part of that settlement, our case will be dismissed,” said Matthew Hutchins earlier today.
“The filming of Rust, which I will now executive produce, will resume with all the original principal players on board in January 2023,” he added.
“I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr. Baldwin),” he continued. “All of us believe Halyna’s death was a terrible accident. I am grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work.”
In a statement from Rust Move Productions via attorney Melina Spadone, the company said, “We are pleased the parties came together to resolve this matter, which, subject to court approval, marks an important step forward in celebrating Halyna’s life and honoring her work.”
Alec Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nikas, added: “Throughout this difficult process, everyone has maintained the specific desire to do what is best for Halyna’s son. We are grateful to everyone who contributed to the resolution of this tragic and painful situation.”
22 Comments
“The production company argued that they didn’t employ armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who supervised gun safety on the Rust set.”
What was she just there supervising gun safety in her spare time?
What, you don’t supervise gun safety as a hobby on the weekends like we all do?
Actually I referee canine Jenga competitions.
DON’T YOU JUDGE ME!!!
Referee not, lest ye be refereed.
There are different liability standards for actions taken by employees versus actions by Independent Contractors. I think the claim is that the armorer was an independent contractor and thus rather than suing the production company, the plaintiff should sue her or her company directly.
I don’t understand why they would continue to throw money at this production. The only thing anybody is going to remember about it is Hutchins’ death, and no amount of investigations or people saying that Baldwin or anyone on set wasn’t guilty of any crimes is going to clear that up.I know this is definitely some F-list Redbox fodder, but I just can’t imagine anyone believing that this film can be at all profitable with the massive black cloud that’s over it.
Don’t be ridiculous; Netflix will definitely pay $30 million for this.
I suspect that if the plaintiff is to recover any money from some entity called “Rust Movie Productions,” first it must produce a movie called Rust.
They evidently came to the conclusion that Baldwin called (and got no end of shit around here for saying) months ago: that their best chance at a decent settlement was for the movie to proceed and be profitable. One reason there are all those production company credits (sometimes including obnoxious logos and graphics) before the film is that those production companies are meant to minimize filmmakers’ liability. They typically only hold the bare minimum of money required to meet the production’s expenses, if that, and only wind up holding more money than that if the movie is profitable. Under similar circumstances, Brandon Lee’s estate settled with the producers of The Crow and allowed them to finish that production, because it was the best way to ensure they got compensated for his wrongful death.There’s a decent chance someone will buy the film, if only because people have heard of it and will be curious.
From what I’ve read, even the bare minimum of funding held by these shell companies is from loans. If production is cancelled, then the common practice is to file for bankruptcy and any lawsuit would have to fight it out with the creditors for compensation.And as things go these days, there’ll now be at least two films here — Rust and at least one documentary on the making of… I’d also argue that the majority of people that have watched The Crow over the years, had no idea the Brandon Lee died from injuries on set and after a couple years the same will be true about Hutchins — she’ll just be a random footnote “in the memory of” during the credits and folks will have to google her to figure out who she is — all the while the movie will continue to pick up residuals for years.
Wow, they really are going to finish this film? Yikes
John Landis finished Twilight Zone back in the 80s and had quite a few successful films after the horrible accidents on that set.
Funnily enough Jennifer Jason Leigh didn’t act in any of them, though.
Kinda surprised none of the TZ revivals have done a story about that. Maybe a director who puts other people’s safety at risk gets a taste of his own medicine.
Instead of the terrible guy waking up and finding himself to have become Hitler, he’s become John Landis. Or his son Max. Great family the Landises.
I would bet nobody involved wants to but there are contracts that would be too difficult or expensive to break.
Her husband is now an executive producer on this. Yikes! indeed.
This gives me hope we will one day see the finished production of the biopic about Gregg Allman’s life starring William Hurt.
Did they ever find out how live rounds got into the gun, or even onto the set?It seems like they ought to be able to track that down, but I haven’t heard anything about it.
Didn’t they say at one point that some of the crew liked to do target practice on set or some such insanity? That would explain where the live rounds came from even if not what they were doing in a supposed “cold” gun.
I read that in the very beginning, but nothing more about it since.It sounded like a rumor that somebody heard about.
If a movie project needed to be written off, this is definitely the one.