Johnson steps up following the fatal shooting in Rust
A shocking incident shook the entire world last month when news broke that one person had died and another was injured on the set of the upcoming Western movie, Rust. After an investigation, police found out that the film’s star, Alec Baldwin, had misfired a loaded prop gun that proceeded to injure the film’s director, Joel Souza, as well as kill cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. The criminal investigation is still ongoing and it remains to be seen what kind of changes will be made to the production of Hollywood movies going forward. While speaking to Variety during the red carpet premiere of his upcoming Netflix film, Red Notice, Johnson vowed that all films produced by Seven Bucks Productions will start using rubber guns. Johnson specifically states that all projects handled by his company “won’t use real guns at all”. He added that his company will “take care” of all the gun effects post-production. He proceeded to clarify that safety is more important than money. Johnson is one of the biggest figures in Hollywood to take such a strong stand against the use of guns in films in the aftermath of Rust’s infamous incident. Many also recalled previous accidents following the said tragedy. Case in point, Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, died following a prop gun mishap while filming The Crow. We hope that Johnson’s stance can inspire other production companies to do the same. As the second-highest-paid actor this year, Johnson’s platform is big enough that he can make industry-wide changes just by taking a stand. Keep in mind that Seven Bucks produces several of the actor’s films, including the resurrected Jumanji films, as well as the Fast and Furious spin-offs, Hobbs & Shaw. Seven Bucks is also producing Johnson’s DCEU debut, Black Adam. At the moment, further investigations are still underway to find out exactly why the prop guns were loaded in the first place and who is responsible for it. In the meantime, it is up to figures like Johnson, as well as production companies and studio executives, to make sure that things like this will never happen again. Speaking of Johnson, he recently spoke about wanting a Marvel-DC crossover to happen in the future. He also recently revealed that he still receives jokes about his feud with former Fast and Furious co-star, Vin Diesel.
