Filming a movie takes a wealth of effort from a ton of people, from those in front of the camera to those behind it. And while special care is taken to make sure nobody gets hurt, every once in a while somebody is going to take a knife to the body (Or a camera crane to the head, as was the case for Baz Luhrmann on the set of The Great Gatsby). But in this case, the accidental stabbing happened to a stuntman on the set of David Ayer’s WWII drama Fury. I know what you’re thinking. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for a stuntman be blown up or shot in a war movie accident?” It may speak to the smaller scale of the film itself, or maybe somebody slipped while buttering some bread.
While no name has been released, Variety reports the injured stuntman was 35 years old, and was stabbed in the shoulder while on set in an Oxfordshire countryside in England. From there, he was airlifted out to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.
There are no signs that it was a vengeful act of violence however, according to production company representative Claudia Kalindjian. “There has been an accident between two professional stuntmen which happened in a rehearsed action sequence,” she said in an official statement. “It was an accident. It is obviously very unfortunate. He left the set laughing and talking.” The Thames Valley cops aren’t treating it as a crime either, given it happened on private property.
I do have to wonder if what the stuntman was talking about was suing Sony, and then laughing about everything that he was going to buy with his riches. After all, it was only last year when an injured extra from Paramount’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon scored over $18 million from the production company in a lawsuit after being injured during a stunt. The woman, Gabriela Cedillo, suffers from permanent brain damage, so these situations aren’t exactly similar, but people have brought out their lawyers for less-important things.
Fury will tell the story of a small unit of soldiers led by their hardass sergeant Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) who enter into a dangerous mission near the end of WWII. Wardaddy’s colorful squad is comprised of Jon Bernthal, Michael Pena, Logan Lerman and Shia LaBeouf. Assuming there are no further incidents that shut the production down, Fury is working its way towards a November 2014 release.
Not all stuntmen injuries are sad affairs, as good old Super Dave Osborne has shown us for years. Relive one of those stunts below, while joining us in hoping for the Fury stuntman’s safe and quick recovery.
