The use of 'live' guns has been barred from the filming on ABC's police procedural show following the fatal accident on set of movie 'Rust' that killed cinematographer.
- Oct 25, 2021
AceShowbiz - Bosses on U.S. TV series "The Rookie" have banned "live" weapons on set, following Thursday's (21Oct21) fatal shooting on the Alec Baldwin western "Rust".
Director of photography Halyna Hutchins was accidentally shot and later died, and director Joel Souza was wounded when the prop gun Baldwin was handling discharged. Police chiefs are still trying to determine what went wrong.
Amid calls for heightened gun safety on sets, Alexi Hawley, the showrunner of "The Rookie", has taken the drastic action, to protect the cast and crew of the series, which stars Nathan Fillion.
"As of today, it is now policy on The Rookie that all gunfire on set will be with Air Soft guns with CG muzzle flashes added in post (production). There will be no more 'live' weapons on the show. The safety of our cast and crew is too important. Any risk is too much risk," Hawley wrote in a staff memo on Friday, which was shared by The Hollywood Reporter.
"The tragic events in New Mexico yesterday have shaken us all, and our hearts go out to the friends and family of Halyna Hutchins and Joel Souza. As of today, it is now policy on The Rookie that all gunfire on set will be Air Soft guns with CG muzzle flashes added in post. There will be no more 'live' weapons on the show. The safety our cast and crew is too important. Any risk is too much risk."
Air Soft guns are similar to BB guns, and use pellets instead of bullets, producing less energy than a standard gun.
The ABC series' special effects staffmembers have primarily used CGI (computer graphics) to portray muzzle flashes but occasionally employed "live" weapons on "big, outside set pieces," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Meanwhile, the family of actor Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, who was killed in a similar incident on the set of 1993's "The Crow", has also called for a ban on all guns on Hollywood sets to avert another tragedy.
Brandon's sister, Shannon Lee, told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, "I think that in this day and age with all the special effects that are possible and all of the technology, there is no reason to have a prop gun or a gun on a set that can fire a projectile of any sort..."
"I don't want to speak to the incident on Rust, but in Brandon's accident, there were many rules that were not followed and corners that were cut, which lead to the tragedy on that set. It did not have to happen."
