Latest news with #MatthewHutchins
Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Alec Baldwin's Rust shooting scandal sees major update with shock legal move
Alec Baldwin 's Rust shooting scandal has seen a major update, as the armorer implicated in the case has been released from jail. In October 2021, while filming the Western movie Rust in New Mexico, Baldwin was holding a prop revolver that went off and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin, who strenuously denied pulling the trigger, faced a charge of involuntary manslaughter that was ultimately dismissed by the judge. However the armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of the same crime and sentenced to the maximum 18 months in prison beginning last March. Now, 14 months into her time behind bars, she has been released early for good behavior after completing a drug program in custody, sources told TMZ. Although she is no longer in jail, she will still reportedly have to wait out a year of parole in Bullhead, Arizona8 and is barred from owning weapons. Alec Baldwin's Rust shooting scandal has seen a major update; Baldwin is seen here outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff's offices on the day of the shooting in October 2021 Additionally, she will be required to undergo a mental health review and go along with all of the recommendations that result from the assessment. She is also not allowed to contact any of Halyna Hutchins' family, such as her widower Matthew Hutchins, who gained a producer credit on Rust as part of a wrongful death settlement in the aftermath of the shooting. Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after a jury determined that she was reckless in her on-set handling of the ammunition. The gun that Baldwin fired was supposed to be loaded with blanks rather than the real bullets that turned out to have been inside. Rust ultimately had its world premiere at a film festival in Poland last September before opening in the United States earlier this month to a polarized critical response. Meanwhile, this January, Baldwin filed a civil lawsuit, accusing several people in the Santa Fe, New Mexico District Attorney's office of malicious prosecution and civil rights violations after he was charged over the shooting. Baldwin claimed he had pulled back the hammer of the revolver, not the trigger, but the gun fired anyway. Director Joel Souza was also injured in the incident. In the court filing, The Departed star and his legal team accused prosecutors of trying to 'scapegoat Baldwin for the acts and omissions of others, regardless of the evidence or the law,' according to the Associate Press. They also accused prosecutors and investigators of targeting the star for professional or political gain. Baldwin is seeking unspecified punitive damages, compensatory damages, attorneys' fees and interest. The case against Baldwin was dismissed in 2024 after it was discovered the prosecution had withheld evidence in the case, and did not share information about or access to live ammunition brought in by a retired police officer who said it could be related to the Hutchins killing. The ammunition was filed under a separate case number and Baldwin's legal team was not notified. After the dismissal of Baldwin's case, weapons supervisor Gutierrez-Reed moved to have her conviction dismissed or to receive a new trial.
Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Alec Baldwin's Rust shooting scandal sees major update with shock legal move
Alec Baldwin 's Rust shooting scandal has seen a major update, as the armorer implicated in the case has been released from jail. In October 2021, while filming the Western movie Rust in New Mexico, Baldwin was holding a prop revolver that went off and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin, who strenuously denied pulling the trigger, faced a charge of involuntary manslaughter that was ultimately dismissed by the judge. However the armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of the same crime and sentenced to the maximum 18 months in prison beginning last March. Now, 14 months into her time behind bars, she has been released early for good behavior after completing a drug program in custody, sources told TMZ. Although she is no longer in jail, she will still reportedly have to wait out a year of parole in Bullhead, Arizona8 and is barred from owning weapons. Alec Baldwin's Rust shooting scandal has seen a major update; Baldwin is seen here outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff's offices on the day of the shooting in October 2021 Additionally, she will be required to undergo a mental health review and go along with all of the recommendations that result from the assessment. She is also not allowed to contact any of Halyna Hutchins' family, such as her widower Matthew Hutchins, who gained a producer credit on Rust as part of a wrongful death settlement in the aftermath of the shooting. Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after a jury determined that she was reckless in her on-set handling of the ammunition. The gun that Baldwin fired was supposed to be loaded with blanks rather than the real bullets that turned out to have been inside.
New York Times
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Rust' Review: It's a Hard Watch
It's impossible to watch 'Rust,' a period western steeped in death, without thinking about the catastrophe that occurred on set while it was being filmed in New Mexico on Oct. 21, 2021. During a rehearsal, a gun that the star Alec Baldwin was handling discharged a live bullet, fatally wounding the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and injuring the director, Joel Souza. Hutchins was 42; she is survived by a son and her husband, Matthew Hutchins. In March 2024, the movie's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter; she received an 18-month sentence. In July 2024, a case against Baldwin was dismissed after a judge determined that some of the evidence had been mishandled. 'There is no way for the court to right this wrong,' the judge said. Those words haunt 'Rust,' which is now being released simultaneously in theaters and on streaming. The fact that it is now available to the viewing public isn't enough to justify a review. And, in truth, this is no longer an ordinary movie; it is, rather, a deeply depressing coda to an appalling and entirely preventable tragedy. In general, live ammunition should never be on any film set, per industry standards. Gutierrez-Reed, who was 24 at the time and an inexperienced armorer, was supposed to load the revolver that Baldwin was holding with dummy rounds. But one of the rounds she loaded into the gun was live. This wasn't the first time that someone died in a preventable accident while making a movie. In 2014, Sarah Jones, 27, was struck by a train while working as a camera assistant on the drama 'Midnight Rider.' The project was never finished, and crews began putting Jones's name on clapboards as part of a campaign known as 'Safety for Sarah.' As the cinematographer Haskell Wexler, who had started another safety initiative for more humane working hours, said: 'We are making entertainment, and there's no reason to risk our lives and our health to get a shot.' His words should have been seared into the minds of everyone in the industry, and anyone who flouts safety protocols should be banned. Three and a half years after Hutchins's death, the only question that seems worth asking about 'Rust,' I think, is what does its release mean to her family. In 2022, some members reached a settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit against the movie's producers a few months before production resumed. Hutchins was named as one of the movie's executive producers, and 'Rust,' somewhat queasily, has been dedicated to her. A release from the 'Rust' representatives states that its original producers will not gain financially from the movie. The terms of Matthew Hutchins's settlement were sealed, the release said, but it has been confirmed that he and the couple's son, Andros, will receive profits from the film. That alone is the only justification for why 'Rust' wasn't shelved. This is pretty much all there is to say about this movie, a derivative, hyperviolent, finally sentimental drama set in the 19th century about an orphan (Patrick Scott McDermott) and his outlaw grandfather (Baldwin) that's filled with mayhem and carnage. There's a protracted scene of a hanging, and characters consistently shoot at one another, including at close range. Like the country itself, American cinema has always been steeped in violence, and while sometimes the onscreen brutality is narratively justified, here it largely comes off as egregious, indulgent posturing. The images are nicely composed and dramatically lighted, with bright, sometimes moody big-sky exteriors that suggest freedom and many interior scenes pushed to claustrophobic darkness. There's a sense of cinema history, too, and a pro forma nod at 'The Searchers.' It may be reassuring for some viewers to see 'Rust' as a kind of testimonial to Hutchins's talent. Another cinematographer, Bianca Cline, stepped in when the shoot resumed, though, so it is impossible to distinguish who did what, much less what was done in postproduction. What is undeniable is that because 'Rust' looks as good as it does, every time riders on horseback appear against a florid sky, it isn't the characters you think about — it's Halyna Hutchins.
