Three crew members who worked on the Western movie “Rust” reached a settlement this week in a lawsuit arising from the 2021 fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the film’s set, according to court documents and lawyers.
They were seeking compensation from the producers of the movie, including Alec Baldwin as the lead actor and co-producer. The suit accused the film’s producers of negligence and failing to follow industry safety rules, allegations that the producers denied.
The full terms of the settlement were not immediately available. Lawyers for the producers did not comment or were not immediately available on Saturday.
The three crew members were independent contractors in New Mexico, where “Rust,” which was released last month, was filmed on a set outside Santa Fe. One was a dolly operator responsible for building and operating the apparatus for camera movement; another was the costumer; the third managed all the nonelectric support gear.
All three were on the set when Mr. Baldwin positioned an antique-style revolver for the camera on Oct. 21, 2021. Mr. Baldwin had been told that the gun was “cold,” meaning it had no live ammunition.
But as he practiced drawing the gun — in a scene in which his character was cornered by the authorities in a small church when he decides to shoot his way out — the revolver went off, discharging a live bullet, which killed Halyna Hutchins, the movie’s cinematographer, and wounded the director Joel Souza.
The bullet passed through Ms. Hutchins’s upper body and lodged in Mr. Souza’s shoulder.
Ms. Hutchins was a 42-year-old rising cinematographer when she was killed. She was survived by her husband, Matthew Hutchins, and the couple’s son, Andros.
“In honor of our friend and colleague, Halyna Hutchins, we support the release of ‘Rust’ in commemoration of her talent, dedication, and legacy as a cinematographer,” the three crew members who filed the lawsuit said in a statement last month.
Their lawyer, Jacob G. Vigil, did not respond to calls and emails on Saturday.
The settlement, which was filed on Wednesday in a district court in Santa Fe County, N.M., is the latest development in the film’s saga, after years of lawsuits, investigations and criminal charges.
In 2022, some members of Ms. Hutchins’s family reached a settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit against the movie’s producers.
The terms of that settlement were sealed, but it was confirmed that Mr. Hutchins and Andros would receive some profits from the film, not its original producers.
After that settlement, the movie finished filming in Montana in 2023 with a new cinematographer. The filmmakers used fake weapons that were incapable of firing.
In March 2024, the movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter; she received an 18-month sentence. The film’s assistant director, David Halls, who handed the gun to Mr. Baldwin, was sentenced to probation of six months after accepting a plea deal for negligent use of a deadly weapon.
And in July 2024, a case against Mr. Baldwin was dismissed after a judge determined that prosecutors withheld some of the evidence from the defense. “There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” the judge said at the time.
Mr. Baldwin sued prosecutors over what he said was a “malicious prosecution.” The case remains pending.
His lawsuit accuses prosecutors of violating his constitutional rights through “improper use of the criminal process.” The prosecution argued that criminal charges against Mr. Baldwin were justified, saying that he behaved recklessly on the set in a way that caused Ms. Hutchins’s death.
Ms. Hutchins’s mother, Olga Solovey, has also sued the production, along with her husband and other daughter.
Sheelagh McNeill, Kitty Bennett and Julia Jacobs contributed research.
Adeel Hassan, a New York-based reporter for The Times, covers breaking news and other topics.
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