The tragic death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on Alec Baldwin’s film ‘Rust’ brought everyone’s attention to lack of safety measures on the film sets. Reacting to the same Dwayne Johnson has pledged to stop using real firearms on all projects that are produced by his company, Seven Bucks Productions.
Johnson’s upcoming movie ‘Red Notice’ has the A-list actor handling guns. Starring superstars Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot, ‘Red Notice’ is one of many Hollywood films that feature firearms for the sake of action-packed storylines.
“First of all, I was heartbroken. We lost a life. My heart goes out to her family and everybody on set. I’ve known Alec, too, for a very long time,” Johnson was quoted saying at the premiere of ‘Red Notice’ in Los Angeles.
Adding that he will only use rubber guns on his sets and will enforce that rule with any studio he is working with Johnson said “I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can tell you, without an absence of clarity here, that any movie that we have moving forward with Seven Bucks Productions — any movie, any television show, or anything we do or produce — we won’t use real guns at all. We’re going to switch over to rubber guns, and we’re going to take care of it in post. We’re not going to worry about the dollars, we won’t worry about what it costs.”
Dwayne also recalled that soon after the news broke confirming that Hutchins death on ‘Rust’ set, he was on the phone with his team within a couple of hours to discuss what changes his company needed to make in order to ensure complete safety.
“I love the movie business. There are safety protocols and measures that we have always taken in the movie business and we take very seriously, and these sets are safe sets, and we’re proud of that. But accidents do happen. And when something like this happens of this magnitude, this heartbreaking, I think the most prudent thing and the smartest thing to do is just pause for a second and really re-examine how you’re going to move forward and how we’re going to work together,” Johnson explained.
“Any movie we do that Seven Bucks does with any studio, the rule is we’re not going to use real guns. That’s it,” he pledged.
Seven Bucks Productions, founded by Johnson and Dany Garcia who is his long time business partner has done some of the most lucrative films from ‘Jumanji’ to ‘Jungle Cruise’ to ‘Hobbs and Shaw’ and the upcoming ‘Black Adam’.
We hope that Johnson’s endorsement to end the use of real firearms inspires others to ensure safe decision-making across Hollywood productions.
