Alec Baldwin will remain star of the movie “Rust” as it restarts production, the film’s lawyer says.
The 64-year-old actor is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 death of Halyna Hutchins, despite his insistence he didn’t pull the trigger.
Hutchins’ widower Matt, who shared his 10-year-old son Andros with the late cinematographer, will continue as executive producer — a role he took on as part of a wrongful death lawsuit settled in October for an undisclosed amount.
“Rust” director Joel Souza, injured in the shooting, also will return.
“The film is still on track to be completed,” Rust Movie Productions lawyer Melina Spadone said in a statement.
Hutchins, 42, was fatally shot on the movie set outside Sante Fe, N.M., on Oct. 21, 2021, after Baldwin’s prop gun discharged a live round and struck her in the chest.
On Jan. 19, Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said she’d charge both Baldwin and the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed with two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
The actor’s lawyer has called the charge against the “30 Rock” actor “a terrible miscarriage of justice.”
Gutierrez-Reed — who oversaw the weapons on the set — has repeatedly denied responsibility for the shooting. She was once described as being “a bit careless with the guns.”
Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed will be charged “in the alternative” — meaning the jury will decide guilt or innocence on which of two charges — involuntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter in the commission of a lawful act, prosecutors said.
If convicted, the first charge carries a maximum sentence of 18 months; the second charge, which includes a “firearm enhancement” on the charge, has a mandatory five-year sentence.
In January 2022, Gutierrez-Reed filed suit against the props company that supplied the rounds, alleging it sold blanks and lives mixed together.
In November, Baldwin filed lawsuits against several of the movie’s crew members. Lawyers for both Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed have vowed to fight the involuntary manslaughter charges.
With Post wires
