Three years after it was first announced and nearly 18 months after the fatal on-set shooting of cameraman Halyna Hutchins, the Alec Baldwin actor in the western Rust has returned to the Cannes market.
The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Goodfellas – formerly Wild Bunch International – is selling the project and taking over from Highland Film Group who originally launched it in the virtual Marché in 2000.
Rust Baldwin sees a notorious outlaw come out of hiding to prevent his 13-year-old grandson from being hanged for murder. Joel Souza, who worked with Baldwin Crown Vicdirects from a story they both came up with.
However, Rust is now better known for the October 21, 2021 incident at Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe in which a revolver held Baldwin discharged, killing Hutchins and wounding Souza. The tragic incident brought production to a halt, sparked a major legal battle over who was responsible for what happened and prompted industry-wide calls for live ammunition to be banned from film sets. (In February 2022, Hutchins’ family in New Mexico filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Alec Baldwin and “others responsible for safety on set and whose reckless behavior” led to her “senseless and tragic death”.)
In April of this year, two counts of involuntary manslaughter against Baldwin were dropped and filming resumed at Yellowstone Film Ranch in Montana. Hutchins’ widower, Matthew Hutchins, is now an executive producer on the film under a settlement he reached with the production to resolve the wrongful death lawsuit. Filming on Rust is expected to be completed later this month.
