Rust, the Alec Baldwin-led Western notable for the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, has resumed shooting. A spokesperson for Rust Movie Productions told CNN on Tuesday that principal photography for the movie would begin on Thursday, more than a year after the fatal incident that also injured director Joel Souza. Souza is returning to complete the film, along with Baldwin and many other cast and crew members.
A production source shared with CNN that “there are about 20-25 days of filming left on the project.” The church scene that was being filmed when the shooting occurred has been cut from the movie entirely. Additionally, filming will resume on the Yellowstone Film Ranch in Montana, rather than the original location of Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico. Bianca Cline (Marcel The Shell With Shoes On) will serve as the new cinematographer and is reportedly donating her salary to charity in Hutchins’ name.
The resumed movie “will bar any use of working weapons and any form of ammunition,” said Melina Spadone, lawyer for Rust Movie Productions, per the BBC. “Live ammunition is—and always was—prohibited on set.”
Completion of Rust was part of the proposed settlement of the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the late cinematographer’s husband Matthew Hutchins, who is now included as an executive producer on the film. One of the actors, Devon Werkheiser (best known for starring in Nickelodeon’s Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide), recently stated that they would “never touch it” without Hutchins’ family’s blessing, but he was glad to return even though the situation is “super complicated.”
“You can’t separate the loss of life,” Werkheiser said on his podcast. “So I think on social media, say whatever the fuck you’re gonna say. I think critics—the movie’s never gonna be good enough to lose a person. Like, no movie is. So, I don’t think that will—but—for us personally, finishing this thing that like, harmed and hurt so many of us, and just, like, created this rift in our lives, I just, it feels like some kind of completion that feels right.”
Though filming is moving forward, the legal issues surrounding the Rust shooting are not yet resolved. Baldwin, who serves as a producer in addition to being the actor who pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Hutchins, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has also been charged, while first assistant director Dave Halls, who handed Baldwin the gun, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.
