EDITORIAL: "Rust" movie production continues to cast a dark shadow over NM's burgeoning film industry

Sometimes, you just can’t make this stuff up.

Do you suppose any Hollywood writer could hatch a plot where an A-list celebrity and Western movie co-producer accidentally shoots and kills the cinematographer on set?

So, with national media attention and ongoing criminal investigations, the producers decide to continue the movie in a different state far away from the state where the killing occurred.

But back in the home state of New Mexico, where the killing occurred, the movie submits an application for $1.6 million of film credits. After all, the movie-set fatal shooting brought a lot of publicity to the state, with media from all over the world.

Such an incredulous script proposal would go nowhere. Unfortunately, it’s not a Hollywood script. It’s Rust, New Mexico.

Rust Movie Productions had the audacity to submit an application this spring to New Mexico tax authorities for as much as $1.6 million, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Melina Spadone, an attorney representing the production company, told the AP the film production tax incentive was going to be used to finance a legal settlement between “Rust” producers and the widower and son of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, whom actor Alec Baldwin is charged with killing, although Baldwin insists he didn’t pull the trigger of the Colt .45 revolver.

The man with the lethal gun, who is scheduled to go on trial this week in Santa Fe on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, says he was just pointing the revolver at Hutchins during a rehearsal on Oct. 21, 2021, when it went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza on the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside of Santa Fe, the most controversial location in New Mexico since the Trinity Site.

Spadone, a New York- and Los Angeles-based attorney, says the denial of the tax credit is disrupting financial arrangements that are part of the legal settlement between “Rust” producers and the victims.

While it’s true that justice delayed is justice denied and that the survivors of Hutchins are entitled to damages, film tax credits were intended to lure the film industry to New Mexico, not pay for its negligence.

Take it out of Baldwin’s hide, not ours.

Documents obtained by AP show the New Mexico Film Office issued a memo in January to “Rust” that approved eligibility to apply for tax incentives. The process involves reviewing accounting ledgers, vetting against outstanding debts and other factors to determine if expenses are eligible.

But expenses related to negligence resulting in an on-set killing should never be eligible.

The state Environment Department in April 2022 announced a $136,793 civil penalty, the maximum allowable under state law, on Rust Movie Productions LLC for its failure to “keep employees safe.”

Investigators with the department’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau found that if producers had listened to concerned crew members and followed their own protocols, the 42-year-old Hutchins would not have been killed.

Investigators found the production company knew that firearm safety procedures were not being followed on the set “and demonstrated plain indifference to employee safety by failing to review work practices and take corrective action.” Investigators said management was provided multiple opportunities to take corrective actions and chose not to do so.

New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney said the producers’ failures were “both serious and willful.”

Investigators concluded the tragedy could have been avoided had, among other things, the producers adhered to their safety bulletins, such as keeping live rounds off set, having regular safety meetings, allowing armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to determine necessary training, making sure guns were loaded directly before filming and never pointing them at anyone unless “absolutely necessary.”

The movie’s safety coordinator was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation in March 2023 after he pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon. Gutierrez-Reed received the maximum possible 18-month sentence in April after she was found guilty of one count of involuntary manslaughter. The judge also sentenced the then-26-year-old armorer as a “serious violent offender,” which will require her to serve 85% of her sentence before she’s eligible for parole.

“Rust” producers have until late July to appeal the denial decision. If they have any decency, they should not appeal and chalk it up to running a movie set like a circus.

Instead of paying Baldwin and his co-producers film credits, we should consider billing them for more than $625,000 of “Rust”-related prosecution costs spent by the Santa Fe District Attorney’s Office.

The rebooted and stalled production of “Rust” was taken to Montana with some of the original cast and crew, including Baldwin and Souza. Filming wrapped up last year. Producers are now trying to sell the film to distributors. Producers said the film was finished to honor Hutchins’ artistic vision and generate money for her young son. The production of a ghoulish movie is a tasteless way to honor a dead woman’s vision. We hope it never sees the light of day.

As the AP reported, New Mexico’s film incentive program is among the most generous in the nation, offering a direct rebate of between 25% and 40% on an array of expenditures to entice movie projects, employment and infrastructure investments.

It has been working. We’ve never seen so much movie production occurring in New Mexico, including right here at the Journal Center, since the state approved incentives in 2013, bringing in thousands and thousands of jobs.

The state’s film industry is burgeoning. The movie folks tell us they like it here. We’re close to the mountains, the river and to the interstates. When they film here at the Journal, there are often hundreds of crew members and dozens of trucks and tons of expensive equipment. We’re honored to be a film location, spotting various features of our complex in different productions.

But there’s a line, and “Rust” crossed it.

Taxation and Revenue Department spokesperson Charlie Moore says during a recent 12-month period, 56 film incentive applications were approved and 43 were partially or fully denied. It’s good to hear someone is minding the store. Film rebate payouts were $100 million in the fiscal year ending in June 2023 and are expected to rise to nearly $272 million by 2027, the AP reported.

The attorney for “Rust” cautions that the denial of the application could have a chilling effect on rebate-backed loans that propel the local film industry.

Well, not if you’re not a fly-by-night low-rent Wild West show that disregards industry safety protocols to the point that someone is killed. That’s a movie that can be made elsewhere.