On October 21, 2021, tragedy struck on the set of Joel Souza’s indie Western, Rust, as a gun that was meant to be loaded with blanks went off in the hands of the film’s star and producer, Alec Baldwin, wounding Souza and killing his cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. It was a shocking incident that created a lot of questions about how something like that would happen, and it would lead to criminal charges against the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison in April, 2024.
Filmmaker Rachel Mason was friends with Halyna and her husband, Matthew Hutchins, so when it came time to make a movie about Halyna and the incident that killed her, Mason took on that task, to make Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna, sitting down with Souza and others from the cast and crew of the movie to try to figure out whether what happened to Halyna could have been prevented. If nothing else, what happened on that fateful day has (hopefully) changed how the industry handles guns on set, so that something like this might never happen again, but it will not bring back a woman who was a talented rising star in the world of cinematography.
Cinema Daily US spoke with Ms. Mason recently about how difficult it was to make the film with memories of Hutchins still hanging heavily over everyone involved with it.
Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna will stream on Hulu, starting on Tuesday, March 11.
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Director: Rachel Mason
Producers: Julee Metz, Rachel Mason, Kate Barry, Jon Bardin, Will Cohen, Jessica Grimshaw, Nick Shumaker, Jennifer Sears
Production Co: Story Syndicate, Future Clown Productions, Anonymous Content, Hulu Originals, Concordia Studio
Distributor: Hulu
Rating: TV-MA
Genre: Documentary, Crime
Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): March 11, 2025
Runtime: 1 hour, 31 minutes
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