RUST Premieres Three Years After On-Set Death Of Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins

Published: November 26, 2024

RUST Premieres Three Years After On-Set Death of Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins

By Movieguide® Contributor

Three years after the on-set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, RUST has finally premiered on the big screen at the Camerimage Film Festival.

“There’s an obvious sense of relief involved, because it’s been such a long road,” director Joel Souza told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s nice that it’s out there and gets to exist on its own now, separate from everything else.”

Production on RUST was suspended after a prop gun star Alec Baldwin was holding went off, killing Hutchins and injuring Souza.

He shared that, once the cast and crew came back to set, they had an “amazing armorer” handling the prop guns.

“When everybody came back, there was an emotional component that wasn’t there before. It’s nothing we wanted to really delve into much on set, because otherwise, we’d all be in tears all day. But yeah, it was there,” Souza said. “It’s in the eyes, you know? You just can’t escape it, frankly.”

The director also shared his hopes for RUST, saying he wants people to “give it a chance,” for the sake of Hutchins and the work she did before she died.

“It’s a very unique opportunity to look through Halyna’s eyes and see how she saw the world. How much she is missed is evidenced by the fact that so many people came back to finish this film for her,” Souza said. “They came back and stepped into a very difficult and loaded situation because they were touched by her, and it was important to them to finish this for her. A large part of our business only got to know Halyna’s name because of what happened to her — and I think that’s a shame. So if you watch the film, you’ll get to look through her eyes and get to understand a little more about the artist she was. That’s what I’m hoping for most.”

Souza spoke in further detail about Hutchins and her legacy when introducing RUST at the film festival, saying he initially couldn’t imagine finishing the movie. However, Hutchins’ husband Matthew wanted it to be finished, even coming on the project as an executive producer.

“It was important to him that the people who knew and loved Halyna get to see her final work,” Souza said, explaining that his mission was “to preserve every single frame that I could of hers, and to honor her final work.”

One of Hutchins’ friends, filmmaker Rachel Mason, also attended the premiere screening, where she shared she has been working on a documentary about the making of RUST.

“I feel strongly that I need to make a statement about a very misunderstood film and the people who made it, who I believe are heroic people,” Mason said.

She asked many of the cast and crew why they chose to return to the production, “and every single person had the same response to me.”

“When they learned that this film RUST might help Halyna’s family, they thought of one thing: the fact that she has a son, and that son doesn’t get to have a mother anymore,” Mason continued. “And if they could do something for that little boy, then why would they not be there?”