Alec Baldwin’s Other Movie Release Postponed Following Tragic Shooting
In the wake of the tragic accident on the set of Rust, another Alec Baldwin film is being postponed indefinitely.
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The entertainment world is still mourning the tragic loss of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust. While plenty on social media seem to have already decided what did or didn’t happen — or who is or isn’t at fault — the fact remains that the investigation into the incident is ongoing. In light of that, and out of respect for Hutchins’ loved ones, an Alec Baldwin film that was just about to release has stepped on the brakes for now.
Deadline reports that the new documentary Flint: Who Can You Trust? was just about to release this coming Friday. Covering the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, the documentary is narrated by Alec Baldwin. Yesterday, Flint director Anthony Baxter released a statement that the film’s U.S. release would be postponed for the time being “out of the deepest respect for all those affected by this terrible tragedy.” Likewise, the film’s Kickstarter campaign — aimed at bringing the film to more cities — has been paused by the producers.
While it will likely still be some time before we have a clear picture of what happened on the set of Rust, the news coming out of New Mexico points toward negligence. Since news first broke of the tragedy, Serge Svetnoy — Rust‘s chief electrician — called out the film’s producers and the allegedly inexperienced armorer. It also came out that the assistant director who allegedly handed the prop gun to Alec Baldwin, Dave Halls, was fired from the production of the still unreleased Freedom’s Path in 2019 when a gun unexpectedly went off, injuring a crew member. Even before these details came out, it was revealed crew members had walked off the set of Rust in protest of, among other things, lack of safe working conditions.
The response to Hutchins’ death and the wounding of director Joel Souza has been building. Along with expressions of grief and condolences, including from a distraught Alec Baldwin, the accident has sparked widespread discussion about what needs to change to make sure things like this can’t happen. Eric Kripke, showrunner of Amazon Prime’s The Boys, has pledged to ban all blanks from his future productions in favor of adding gun effects post production. Meanwhile writer/director Bandar Albuliwi — a friend of the late Hutchins — started a petition that’s quickly gaining steam on Change.org to ban the use of all real firearms on production sets.
It isn’t just the entertainment industry that’s responding either. As reported by the Albuquerque Journal, on Tuesday New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham called what happened to Hutchins a “horrible, unnecessary, preventable tragedy.” She added that if the entertainment industry doesn’t enforce safety standards on production sets in the state, the government will step in and handle the enforcement for them.
Meanwhile, there are those for whom this story is only too familiar. On Friday, the family of the late Brandon Lee posted their condolences to the loved ones of Halyna Hutchins on Twitter. They ended the tweet with “No one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set. Period.” Lee was shot and killed on the set of The Crow in 1993 by a .44-caliber bullet that should not have been in a prop gun aimed at the actor.
