The on-set incident killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.
Alec Baldwin has reached a settlement in the fatal Rust shooting which killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza in October 2021.
Production on the film is expected to resume in January 2023 with Halyna's widower, Matthew Hutchins, on board as an executive producer.
"We are pleased to announce today the settlement of the civil case filed on behalf of the family of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins," a statement released Wednesday on Baldwin's Instagram page reads. "Throughout this difficult process, everyone has maintained the specific desire to do what is best for Halyna’s son. We are grateful to everyone who contributed to the resolution of this tragic and painful situation."
Baldwin's lawyer, Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel, added in a statement to ET: "Throughout this difficult process, everyone has maintained the specific desire to do what is best for Halyna’s son. We are grateful to everyone who contributed to the resolution of this tragic and painful situation."
In a separate statement from Matthew Hutchins, his attorney Brian Panish of Panish | Shea | Boyle | Ravipudi LLP told ET: "We have reached a settlement, subject to court approval, for our wrongful death case against the producers of Rust including Alec Baldwin and Rust Movie Productions, LLC. As part of that settlement, our case will be dismissed. 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."
In February, Halyna's estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin and the Rust production over the fatal shooting on the set of the film in which Baldwin starred and produced. During a news conference in Los Angeles, Panish said Baldwin and others named defendants are "responsible for the safety on the set and whose reckless behavior in cost cutting led to the senseless and tragic death of Halyna Hutchins.”
While Baldwin was holding the gun at the time of the shooting, he maintains that he never pulled the trigger.
Baldwin spoke out about the tragic incident in August during an interview on The Chris Cuomo Project, explaining how the gun could have gone off without him pulling the trigger.
"This did not come from me, this came from the D.A.'s Office themselves," he said. "You're familiar with what fanning a gun is? Have you heard of that phrase, fanning the gun? So, if you pull the hammer back, and you don’t lock the hammer; if you pull the hammer back pretty far -- in old Western movies you’d see someone fan the hammer of the gun-- the hammer didn’t lock; you pulled it back to an extent where it would fire the bullet without you pulling the trigger, without you locking the hammer."
"The man who's the principal safety officer on the set of the film declared that the gun was safe when he handed it to me," he continued. "The person who was the principal safety officer of the film declared in front of the entire assemblage, ‘This is a cold gun.' Now, why did he say that if he didn’t know and he hadn’t checked? The point is, all of us were told that everything was cool and you could relax and we’re working with a gun that’s safe to rehearse with. He explained it to me, effectively, exactly what can happen if you pull the hammer back and let it go if there’s a live round. See, there’s only one question to ask here -- who put a live round in the gun? That’s it. There is no other question to ask."
Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's attorney, Jason Bowles, told ET on Wednesday: "Hannah is grateful that this settlement will benefit the Hutchins family and that the parties were able to constructively resolve the civil lawsuit. We are hopeful that the district attorneys office will also recognize that a measure of Justice has been achieved in regards to this tragic accident, and that they will opt not to pursue criminal charges."
However, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Office of the First Judicial District Attorney told ET in a statement, "The proposed settlement announced today in Matthew Hutchins’ wrongful death case against Rust movie producers, including Alec Baldwin, in the death of Halyna Hutchins will have no impact on District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altweis’ ongoing investigation or her ultimate decision whether to file criminal charges in the case. While civil suits are settled privately and often involve financial awards, criminal cases deal only in facts. If the facts and evidence warrant criminal charges under New Mexico law then charges will be brought. No one is above the law."
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