Originally published at: Alec Baldwin settles with widower of producer shot dead on set | Boing Boing
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Seems like kind of a weird thing to want given the movie cost his wife her life?
I wonder if someone dreamed up this arrangement so the husband would have a financial motive to want the film to succeed rather than publicly trashing it as the production that killed his wife.
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First GamerGate, now this…? /s
Adam Baldwin has nothing to do with this… Alec Baldwin is the man in the picture
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Adam Baldwin? Boy, these brothers are trouble.
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Folks, never play with guns.
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Sounds like a fair deal to me. It was a tragic accident, but this way her final work will see the light of day, plus there are enough morbid lookie-loos out there that Dad’s share of the box office* will help support their kid for a while.
(Executive Producers definitely get gross instead of net, right?)
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What I mean is if they had simply paid him off there wouldn’t be much keeping him from making the rounds reminding everyone of the tragedy after the movie came out. This way his financial fate is tied to how well the movie performs.
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The audience for multiple film and TV genres respectfully requests you shaddap. slash-s for sarcasm
But suing him for violating an NDA or speaking out about the movie would be a really bad look for the studio. That’s why they went with the carrot instead of the stick.
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Note this doesn’t stop any potential criminal trials.
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Regardless of how he may have handled the aftermath, isn’t the shooting 100% the fault of the armorer? When an armorer hands an actor a gun that is supposed to be unloaded, does the actor really bear any responsibility for verifying that? It sounds like Baldwin was the target of a lawsuit merely because he has money, not because he is the guilty party.
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Correction: Alec, not Adam.
Ya know, there’s just so many of 'em!
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Is it possible for this movie to be released as anything other than a curiosity piece for those obsessed by the tragedy? I know in the past it was possible to ignore this sort of thing (1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie was released without much notice of the stunt that killed several actors including children), but these days with the Internet not so much.
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Mostly, but there appears to be lax safety on the set, which would mean Alec would have some responsibility as an executive producer (as well as other producers not running a tight ship.) And then whoever brought live rounds to the set would also have a share.
Yeah, but Adam Baldwin isn’t even related to them.
The Armorer did not hand the weapon in question to the actor. Chain of custody and standard protocol were broken in several instances leading to this tragedy. Ultimately for the purposes of civil liability the buck stops with the Executive Producer, though there are others (First Assistant Director most prominently) who share culpability.
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Executive Producers are typically the primary financial stakeholders of a production. While an actor may receive EP credit contractually in order to guarantee greater profit participation and creative control, no one in the heirarchy has more power to put their foot down when things on set are unsafe, inappropriate, not to their liking, whatever than the EP.
Unfortunately, EPs also have a profit motive to keep the show moving regardless. This is why they are ultimately liable. They set the culture, and at the end of the day everyone else answers (though not directly, for most) to them.
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Not neccisarily primary, part of why people view EP credits as vanity roles is an EP credit is often given to anyone who puts money in. Regardless of how much. As goes this Baldwin and his production company seem to have provided to first chunk of money.
But the bulk of the funding seems to be coming out of a “Production Company” owned by a couple of wealthy bankers, one them also associated with or running a company that pushes investment in film as a tax break mill for the wealthy. It’s that production company, Thomasville Pictures, that the Hollywood Guilds clashed with over Rust. And at least one other film. And purportedly it’s these guys who sent scabs in after Union workers walked off set.
An Executive Producer credit can also be given to some one who lined up financial backing, but didn’t contribute themselves. Basically a working roll of fundraising shit.
