Family of ‘Rust’ director of filming sues Baldwin over her murder
Cairo – the middle gate Thursday 17 February 2022, 11:06 am
The family of the director of photography for the Western movie “Rust”, Helena Hutchins, who was killed by a bullet fired accidentally from a pistol during filming, has filed a lawsuit against American actor Alec Baldwin, demanding “significant” damages, according to the star’s lawyers.
Attorney Brian Banish, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Hutchins’ husband and son, focused during a news conference on Tuesday, on what he described as “risky behavior” by Alec Baldwin. He also considered that the cost-cutting measures adopted by Baldwin and other producers of the low-budget Western film led to the death of the director of photography, according to “AFP.”
The lawyer enumerated “at least 15 standards” adopted in the film industry, and said that the “Rust” production department did not adhere to them.
Most notably, Banish emphasized that a dummy pistol should have been used in place of a real one, and that no expert qualified to deal with firearms was present at the time of the accident. He also indicated that the team members were not equipped with any protection equipment, as is supposed to happen during the filming of some scenes that require firing blank shots.
The lawsuit was filed in New Mexico, where Halena Hutchins was murdered.
“We think it’s going to be a lot,” Banish said in response to a question about the amount of compensation the family would seek.
This lawsuit is in addition to a number of other civil lawsuits previously filed by members of the film’s staff in recent months.
The film’s lighting director, Serge Svetnoy, sued Baldwin, production management and the person responsible for inspecting firearms during filming, for “negligence” last November, Hana Gutierrez-Reid.
Last month, Reid herself filed a lawsuit against Seth Kenny, the person responsible for supplying munitions used in filming, accusing him of having given the film’s production crew “munitions that were wrongly called chelation munitions”, meaning that they did not contain any powder, ‘while they contained live and chelated munitions at the same time. ».
The criminal investigation is still ongoing.