Saturday, April 26, 2014

Following Crew Member Death, 'Midnight Rider' Loses William Hurt

William Hurt
In case you hadn't heard, the film Midnight Rider, about musician Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers, encountered a tragic production halt when camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed on set in an accident involving a train during filming in Atlanta, Georgia. The accident has actually put the project and some of the filmmakers in hot water due to some uncertainty regarding the safety of crew members on set in what might have been a dangerous production decision. Courts and various unions are dealing with the issue, but director and producer Randall Miller has beentrying to resume production in LA. But that might be hard.
Not only is there a campaign to get crew members to boycott the production, but lead actorWilliam Hurt has just dropped out of the project. In addition, Deadline has a source that says they "were already looking to recast some roles." It doesn't seem like a smart move for Miller to try and finagle this project in the wake of a controversial death of one of his crew members. Plus, with cast members dropping out, it sounds like it should just be scrapped for the time being. Either way, the death of Sarah Jones is a tragedy, and we hope that future accidents like this can be prevented in the future.

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