“Corners Turned Around and Ignored Safety Managers”: Another Huge Lawsuit Filed Against Alec Baldwin and Production of the Movie “Rust”
The lawsuit was filed by the widow of cinematographer Halina Hutchins, who was shot dead last year, alleging that Baldwin and the other producers “acted negligently” throughout the filming.
Actor Alec Baldwin and a number of other executives in the production of the film “Rust” are being sued by Matthew Hutchins, the widow of Halina Hutchins who was killed during the filming of the film last year.
Accommodation Hutchins and Alec Baldwin (Photo: Getty Images / Reuters)
In the lawsuit filed by Matthew Hutchins, who was also named after his son Andrews, it was alleged that Halina was killed “as a result of the negligence of the film’s production, which did not carry out routine safety checks and did not comply with the most basic safety procedures”.
The lawsuit further states that “Halina Hutchins came to life, and the defendants had the ability to prevent her death if they had followed the safety guidelines, instead of rounding corners, speeding up the crowded photo schedule and ignoring complaints about violations of safety procedures.”
The plaintiffs are demanding monetary compensation, but they did not specify the exact amount, and instead they prefer that the court determine the amount of appropriate compensation. It is also important to note that this lawsuit is unrelated to the criminal investigation the sheriff’s office is conducting against the production of the film (which so far has not led to the filing of indictments).
Accommodation Hutchins (Photo: AP)
The deadly incident took place on Thursday, October 21, in Bonanza City, New Mexico – a ghost town located about 20 km south of Santa Fe – during the filming of the movie “Rust”. 42, the cinematographer, and the film’s director, Joel Souza, were injured during the incident, but fortunately he was released from the hospital the next day.
In early December Baldwin – who was holding the weapon when the shot was fired – gave his first interview since the incident, during which he was asked if the script said he should pull the trigger, to which the actor replied: “Well, the trigger was not squeezed, I never pressed the trigger. I never aimed a gun. “Towards someone and pulls the trigger, never.”
Baldwin, Sousa and other senior executives of the film are fully cooperating with the investigation of the incident, and already the weekend after the disaster the police collected evidence. For example, the testimony given by Sousa indicates that the fatal incident occurred during rehearsals for the scene, in which the actor was asked to pull out a gun and aim it at the camera lens.
Director Sousa’s remarks reveal why the actor aimed his weapon at the cinematographer, but many questions remain open, including: How did a gun accessory – which was not supposed to contain a bullet – happen to cause Hutchins’ death? Baldwin referred to this in an interview he gave in December, when asked how the disaster happened anyway: “I have no idea, someone put a live bullet inside the gun, a bullet that was not supposed to be in the set.”
Halina Hutchins, Alec Baldwin and the set of the movie ‘Rust’ (Photo: AP)
The Hutchins family’s lawsuit joins a number of other lawsuits that have already been filed against the film’s producers following the tragic incident.
Aron Dyer, a lawyer representing Baldwin, referred to the lawsuit, saying: “Any allegation that Alec acted negligently is a lie. “That means there is no danger in using the weapon.”
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