8:05 pm update: With Alec Baldwin now confirmed as the accidental prop-gun shooter in the death of Rust dp Halyna Hutchins, people need to calm down and take a couple of steps back. Baldwin’s reputation as an occasional hothead shouldn’t lead to speculation that what happened was anything other than a tragic accident.
The guilty party, if you will, is the person responsible for loading the prop weapon. Who the hell loads a prop pistol with the potential to shoot any sort of projectile? Talk about a totally crazy magic-bullet situation. One shot apparently went into Rust director-writer Joel Souza, 48, and then exited and hit poor Hutchins, who died soon after. Or vice versa. Just don’t start speculating that this horrible accident had anything to do with anyone’s temperament.
Earlier: It’s been reported that a 42 year-old female director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, has died as a result of an accidental shooting on the Santa Fe set of Rust, an Alec Baldwin western.
The New York Post‘s Kenneth Garger is reporting that Baldwin, the film’s star and producer, was the accidental shooter in the incident. Variety is reporting the same. Everyone is.
Quote: “Alec Baldwin fatally shot a woman and injured a man when a prop gun misfired at the New Mexico movie set of the film Rust, authorities said.”
Condolences to Hutchins’ family, friends, professional colleagues. Such a terrible tragedy. Nobody knows anything, but it certainly sounds like a case of cavalier or reckless disregard of safety measures.
Pic is a period western costarring Baldwin, Frances Fisher and Brady Noon under director-writer Joel Souza.
TMZ: “We’re told Alec was filming the scene when someone pulled the prop gun’s trigger. It’s unclear if the person who loaded the gun mistakenly placed bullets inside, or if something was lodged in the barrel that hit the director as well as the director of photography.
Souza, TMZ reports, was “hit in the clavicle.” No specifics on Hutchins’ wound, except that it was fatal.
A live bullet or a harmful projectile of some kind was lodged in the barrel of a prop gun? How could that possibly happen? Somebody fucked up hugely.
