The investigations by authorities in Santa Fe, N.M., are intensifying this week into what went wrong on the Bonanza Creek Ranch set outside the city where theSanta Fe County authorities, including Sheriff Adan Mendoza and District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, are expected to fill in some details about the incident in a news conference on the case set for today at 9 a.m. PT. But Carmack-Altwies has also warned the probe will still take weeks.
“None of the producers of ‘Rust’ have been contacted by the New Mexico District Attorney’s office,” producers said in a statement issued Tuesday. “We will continue to fully cooperate with any and all law-enforcement investigations as they work through the details of this heartbreaking tragedy.” In addition to questions about Halls’ role, a podcast interview with Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the 24-year-old armorer in charge of firearms for “Rust,” has also surfaced in which she admitted to feeling unprepared before taking on the same job in a previous film. In a now ominous admission, Reed said in last month’s “Voices of the West” podcast that “loading blanks” into a prop gun is the “scariest thing to me.
The question of liability in a situation like a movie that draws multiple investors can be tricky, but legal experts say that they expect the producers will be entangled in myriad legal cases as well as insurance and wrongful death claims. It’s also possible that Halls or Gutierrez Reed could face criminal charges, though negligent manslaughter cases are hard to prosecute.
The exponential spike in the making of TV content has put an enormous strain on below-the-line crews. As a low-budget indie film production, “Rust” appears to reflect the difficulty of attracting seasoned pros at a time when there is so much demand for skilled workers. Joyce Gilliard couldn’t believe her ears when she first heard about Hutchins’ death. An IATSE member hairstylist and filmmaker, Gilliard was one of seven production workers injured in 2014 while working on the indie film “Midnight Rider” in the train accident that killed Sarah Jones, a 27-year-old camera operator. That tragedy reverberated around the industry and led to tighter rules concerning dangerous location work.