Last week, it was announced that Supernatural star Jensen Ackles would be teaming with 30 Rock alum Alec Baldwin on a Western titled Rust. That movie has since begun filming in New Mexico, but sadly, it’s already been tainted by tragedy. A crew member from the Rust production has died due to a prop gun misfiring.
Rust is currently rolling cameras at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico, and officials say that at around 1:50 pm MST, sheriff’s deputies were sent to the set after a 911 call came in about someone having been shot. It’s since been confirmed by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office that a female crew member died from injuries sustained by the misfire, and a male crew member is in emergency care at Christus St. Vincent’s Hospital.
UPDATE: Per Variety, Alec Baldwin is the one who fired the gun, while the deceased victim has been identified as cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and the injured victim has been identified as director Joel Souza. The rest of the original story continues below.
Here’s what the Sheriff’s Office said in an official statement (via Deadline):
Detectives are investigating how [the prop firearm was used] and what type of projectile was discharged. This incident remains an active investigation. As more information becomes available, updates will be provided.
Sources who spoke with Deadline claimed earlier in the day that one of Rust’s principal cast members cocked a gun during Rust rehearsal, and whatever was discharged from the firearm hit the aforementioned man and woman. The man was reportedly hit in the shoulder and the woman was taken to the hospital for stomach surgery, but she sadly didn’t make it. Production on Rust has now been halted, with the set being put on “lockdown” and an old church on the grounds specifically being blocked off.
This isn’t the first time a tragedy like this has happened on a film set. On 1994’s The Crow, star Brandon Lee died when he was struck in the head by a blank round from a gun fired by costar Michael Massee. That incident was determined to be an accident, and we’ll just have to wait and see what an investigation into what happened on the Rust set turns up. Rust is the latest Western to make use of the Bonanza Creek Ranch, with others including 3:10 to Yuma and Netflix’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
Rust sees Alec Baldwin playing Harland Rust, an outlaw who’s had a bounty on his head for as long as he can remember. After learning his estranged 13-year-old grandson Lucas, played by Good Boys’ Brady Noon, has been sentenced to death after being convicted of an accidental murder, Harland hightails it to Kansas and breaks the boy out of custody. From there, the two fugitives must avoid Jensen Ackles’ U.S. Marshal Wood Helm and a bounty hunter named Fenton “Preacher” Lang, played by Vikings’ Travis Fimmel, and while they’re traveling across the American frontier, Harland and Lucas will form a closer connection.
The Rust cast also includes Watchmen’s Frances Fisher, while behind the scenes, Joel Souza is writing and directing, and he hashed out the story with Alec Baldwin. We here at CinemaBlend will keep you apprised on Rust’s progress, including any new information that comes to light about the prop gun misfire.
