Alec Baldwin’s Rust to premiere at a Poland film festival; internet ‘can’t believe they still made this’ | Hollywood FilmyMeet

Joel Souza’s Western film Rust will premiere in November at Poland’s Camerimage Film Festival. The movie featuring Alec Baldwin made news due to the on-set shooting that resulted in the death of Ukrainian cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. (Also Read: Quentin Tarantino blames Alec Baldwin for Rust shooting death: ‘The actor is 10% responsible’)

Rust to premiere in Poland

Deadline reports that in addition to the film’s debut at the film festival, director Joel, cinematographer Bianca Cline, and Halyna’s mentor Stephen Lighthill will hold a panel discussion after the screening. They will discuss how they continued with the film’s production after Halyna’s death, the role of women in cinematography, and safety on film sets.

Halyna is said to have lobbied during the film’s production to screen it at Poland’s Camerimage, a festival that honours cinematographers. The report states that it’s unclear whether Alec will attend the film’s screening. The film festival runs from November 16-23. Rust tells the story of a 13-year-old boy left to fend for himself and his brother after their parents died in the 1880s.

Internet reacts

Given that one person died and director Joel was left injured due to an accidental shooting by Alec with a prop gun, the internet finds it ‘disrespectful’ that they are still releasing the film. One person wrote on Instagram, “I can’t believe they still made this.” Another wrote, “Releasing this film is incredibly disrespectful.” A person opined, “This is an absolute miracle that this film is getting released. It’s very sad knowing what happened during production. But I’ll be very cautiously optimistic about this movie.”

Some people also commented that watching the film would send a message that one ‘can outrageously violate safety protocols on set even if it kills people’. Not everyone thought it was ‘disrespectful’ to release this film. One person commented, “I don’t think it’s disrespectful to release it really.” A fan reasoned, “She worked hard on it and put her talent into it. And tragically died while doing what she loved. Not releasing it would be wasting her last work, her death becoming even more senseless.”

What happened

In October 2021, a Colt 45 gun held by Alec fired off a live round during rehearsal. It was pointed at Halyna, resulting in her death and severely injuring Joel. Alec insisted that he did not pull the trigger and that it went off on its own. He was cleared of involuntary manslaughter in August this year after it was ruled that key evidence was mishandled. The film’s armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is serving an 18-month prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter.