Filming on Alec Baldwin's movie 'Rust' is shifting to Montana

SANTA FE, N.M. — Filming on the Western movie "Rust" could resume this week in Montana, the production company said Wednesday, in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of a cinematographer during a rehearsal with actor Alec Baldwin on the original production in New Mexico.

Baldwin will continue his involvement as an actor and coproducer, and Rust Move Productions attorney Melina Spadone said via a representative that filming will restart Thursday at the Yellowstone Film Ranch.

The production company finalized a settlement last month with New Mexico workplace safety regulars over "serious" violations, agreeing to a $100,000 fine to resolve a scathing safety review that detailed unheeded complaints and misfires on set before cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed in October 2021.

Plans to resume filming were outlined last year by widower Matthew Hutchins in a proposed settlement to a wrongful death lawsuit that would make him an executive producer on a rebooted "Rust."

Prosecutors in Santa Fe are pressing forward with involuntary manslaughter charges against actor Baldwin and a weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed have pleaded not guilty.

Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins during a rehearsal when the gun when off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Baldwin has said the gun went off accidentally and that he did not pull the trigger. An FBI forensic report found the weapon could not have fired unless the trigger was pulled.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham this month signed a new $360,000 allowance for prosecution of the case. Evidentiary hearings are scheduled in early May in state District Court to decide whether to proceed toward trial. Baldwin has indicated that he won't attend those hearings.

Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies says her office is pursuing justice in the death of Hutchins and wants to show that no one is above the law when it comes to firearms and public safety. She says the Ukrainian-born cinematographer's death was tragic and preventable.

"Rust" safety coordinator and assistant director David Halls pleaded no contest in March to a conviction for unsafe handling of a firearm and a suspended sentence of six months of probation.

Souza, the director, has said he'll return to the "Rust" production to honor the legacy of Halyna Hutchins.

Parts of a documentary about Hutchins' life will be filmed simultaneously with "Rust."

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.