The Camerimage International Film Festival announced Thursday that “Rust” would premiere in Poland in November, and I can’t figure out why this film hasn’t been canned.
The movie is slated to screen a full three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was allegedly shot and killed on set. “Rust” seemed to be cursed and will forever be synonymous with death and on-set safety issues.
Does anyone really care about seeing this film after all the chaos, devastation and bad energy that has surrounded it? You’d think that at some point, someone would realize this movie would never be embraced in the manner that was initially intended.
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO – JULY 12: Hilaria Baldwin (R) speaks to her husband actor Alec Baldwin during his trial on involuntary manslaughter in First Judicial District Court on July 12, 2024 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Baldwin is charged in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film “Rust” in 2021. (Photo by Ramsay de Give-Pool/Getty Images)
In the middle of filming, Alec Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were at the center of the investigation into Hutchins’ death. It proved to be a seemingly endless succession of civil suits and criminal court proceedings. Ultimately, First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter case, and New Mexico District Court Judge Mary Marlowe sentenced Gutierrez-Reed to 18 months behind bars.
This sounds like a horror-movie in itself.
A photo of Serge Svetnoy and Halyna Hutchins is displayed after a press conference with attorney Gary Dordick (not pictured) and Serge Svetnoy, chief lighting technician for the film Rust, about a lawsuit filed after the fatal shooting on the film Rust during a press conference on November 10, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
The festival is doing all the right things by promising to honor Hutchins, who was 42 years old when she died.
Director Joel Souza, cinematographer Bianca Cline and Stephen Lighthill, Halyna’s mentor at the American Film Institute, will participate in a panel to “discuss events surrounding the film, offering insight into continuing production after Halyna’s death,” after the movie is screened, Energa Camerimage announced.
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO – APRIL 15: Hannah Gutierrez Reed, with her attorney Jason Bowles appears during her sentencing hearing in First District Court, on April 15, 2024 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Armorer on the set of the Western film “Rust,”Gutierrez Reed was convicted by a jury of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins who was fatally shot by Alec Baldwin in 2021. (Photo by Eddie Moore-Pool/Getty Images)
Baldwin, the lead actor and producer of “Rust,” will not attend the premiere, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This all seems like a bundle of bad vibes being passed off as a movie screening. The red carpet won’t shine, and the fans aren’t going to just forget that this movie resulted in the death of an innocent worker. (RELATED: ‘Rust’ Armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed Pleads Guilty To Unrelated Gun Charge)
There’s very little to celebrate by viewing a movie that will forever be associated with death, tragedy, and the lingering questions of guilt and transparency that may never fully be resolved.
