Alec Baldwin’s troubled movie Rust has received a premiere date, three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot dead on the film’s set.
Baldwin, the star and producer, was holding a gun that discharged during filming of the Western, near Santa Fe on October 21, 2021. Hutchins, 42, was killed, and writer-director Joel Souza was injured. Baldwin has maintained that he was unaware the gun contained live rounds, and he has denied pulling the trigger.
An involuntary manslaughter case against the actor was dismissed in July, the judge citing police and prosecutor misconduct. But the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is serving an 18-month sentence. A 12-person jury acquitted her of evidence tampering related to allegations of supplying another crew member with cocaine, but found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Rust‘sworld premiere is scheduled for Poland’s Camerimage Festival, which honors the work of directors of photography and cinematographers, between November 16 and 23.
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“Almost three years after the tragic death of Halyna Hutchins, a Ukrainian cinematographer who was part of the festival family, Camerimage is set to honor her memory and remind the world of her legacy,” reads a press release from the festival.
Bianca Cline, the director of photography who last year took over from Hutchins, said the special screening will pay tribute to the late cinematographer’s “beautiful” work.
“We wanted to do this to honor her and to make sure that people could see what she was working on,” said Cline. “I think once people see it, they’ll understand more of why we finished this. I think it’s gotten painted as some sort of low-budget genre film and I think it’s anything but. I think it’s a really beautiful film. It’s Halyna’s best work.”
Cline told People that Hutchins’ Kiev-based mother, Olga Solovey, and sister, Svetlana Zemko, had backed the completion of the film.
“They’re very excited,” Cline said. “Halyna’s mother was probably the biggest champion of the film. She wanted it to be done because she knew how much it meant to Halyna. She told me how excited Halyna was to see the film.”
Newsweek has contacted a representative of Baldwin via email for comment.
Following the screening of Rust, Cline will join director Souza, and Stephen Lighthill, Hutchins’ mentor from the American Film Institute, to discuss “the unique visual style that Halyna developed on set and explain how Bianca Cline, who took over her work, managed to remarkably replicate Halyna’s style,” according to the press release.
Among the other topics discussed will be safety on set.
“All of us are generally aware that we’re kind of in a dangerous position,” said Cline. “Her death solidified how dangerous it is. There’s a difference between it feeling dangerous and then it being like, oh yeah, it is very, very dangerous.”
Production on the movie came to an instant halt following Hutchins’ death. It was later revealed in October 2022 that filming was set to resume, with Hutchins’ husband, Matthew—who had filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in February 2022—serving as an executive producer.
Melina Spadone, the attorney for Rust Movie Productions, LLC, told Entertainment Tonight at the time that filming would continue with “onset safety supervisors and union crew members and will bar any use of working weapons or any ammunition.”
Producers also confirmed that the filming of Rust, which resumed production in April 2023, had been moved from New Mexico to Yellowstone Film Ranch in Montana.
