Alec Baldwin resumes work on 'Rust'

Producer-star Alec Baldwin has returned to the set of the Western drama "Rust," which resumed filming Thursday for the first time since a prop gun's accidental live round killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded writer-director Joel Souza in 2021.

Baldwin, 65, was back at work Friday at the Yellowstone Film Ranch in Park County, Montana, where the production has relocated from New Mexico, the site of the tragedy. Carter Boehm, an executive producer of the film, is a co-owner of the 2-year-old ranch with a standing set of an Old West town.

The resumption was first announced in October as part of a settlement with Hutchins' husband, Matthew, who came aboard as an executive producer. The relocation to Montana was announced in February. 

The film's official logline reads: “A 13-year-old boy, left to fend for himself and his younger brother following the death of their parents in 1880s Kansas, is taken on a violent, harrowing journey to old Mexico by his long estranged grandfather after he’s sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.” Baldwin plays the grandfather, outlaw Harland Rust.

Melina Spadone, an attorney for the film's production company, said in a statement last week, “The production will continue to utilize union crew members and will bar any use of working weapons and any form of ammunition,” adding, “Live ammunition is — and always was — prohibited on set.”

Souza also returned to the production. New cinematographer Bianca Cline ("Marcel the Shell with Shoes On") said she is donating her salary to charity.

A New York Times reporter at the set Friday reported Baldwin was riding "a chestnut horse in a steep gully in a snow-dusted valley," and later noted that the film's new armorer, Andrew Wert — who replaced Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, currently facing criminal charges of involuntary manslaughter in New Mexico — "adjusted the leather bandolier fitted onto the actor. Placed inside was what appeared to be ammunition for a .45 Long Colt. The bullets were rubber."

Charges against Amityville-born and Massapequa-raised Emmy Award winner and Oscar nominee Baldwin, who was holding the prop gun that fired with an as-yet-inexplicable live round, were dropped last week. His attorneys, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, said in a joint statement to Newsday, “We are pleased with the decision to dismiss the case against Alec Baldwin and we encourage a proper investigation into the facts and circumstances of this tragic accident.”