‘Rust’ Production to Resume Amid Alec Baldwin’s Involuntary Manslaughter Charges

Despite facing involuntary manslaughter charges, Alec Baldwin is still set to star in Rust, as the troubled production resumes in the coming months.

Melina Spadone, the attorney for Rust Movie Productions, said in a statement to ET that the film will continue shooting, they will have mandated "on-set safety supervisors and union crew members and will bar any use of working weapons or any ammunition."

The statement comes after it was announced that Baldwin -- as well as Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed -- would soon be facing criminal charges stemming from the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021, on the film's set in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and Rust special prosecutor Andrea Reeb announced on Thursday in a statement that Baldwin, 64, and Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Carmack-Altwies and Reeb also said the actor and armorer will be "charged in the alternative" with the two counts of manslaughter, meaning that a jury would decide not simply if they were guilty, but under which definition of involuntary manslaughter they were guilty.

David Halls, the film's assistant director, signed a plea agreement for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. The terms include a suspended sentence and six months of probation.

While Baldwin has maintained time and again that he did not pull the trigger on the prop gun that killed Hutchins, Carmack-Altwies is adamant Baldwin pulled the trigger, and she pointed to the FBI's forensic report, in which the federal agency said its accidental discharge testing determined the gun used in the shooting -- a .45 colt caliber F.lli Pietta single-action revolver -- couldn't have gone off without the trigger being pulled.

In a statement to ET, Baldwin's attorney, Luke Nikas, said his client "relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds."

As for what's next, Carmack-Altwies says her office will not be asking for Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed to be placed under arrest. She said the actor and the armorer will be summoned for an arraignment that may either be done in person or by video, which is how Santa Fe County has conducted arraignments since the beginning of the pandemic.

Plans to continue production on Rust were announced in October 2022, after Baldwin settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Hutchins' family.

In a statement from Matthew Hutchins following the settlement, he explained, "The filming of Rust, which I will now executive produce, will resume with all the original principal players on board, in January 2023. I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr. Baldwin). All of us believe Halyna's death was a terrible accident. I am grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna's final work."

ET learned in late October that "The production of Rust will not return to New Mexico," according to Melina Spadone, Attorney for Rust Movie Productions LLC, in a statement to ET. "The production is considering other locations, including California, but no decisions have been made." 

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