The western movie Rust starring Alec Baldwin and Jensen Ackles already was suffering from the most tragic reputation, following the accidental discharge of a live round in a prop gun that led to the death of the production’s cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The movie is no longer shooting, and now may never happen, and yet the terrible incidents aren’t over yet, as a crew member was reportedly bitten by a venomous spider that could result in amputation.
Jason Miller was a lamp operator and pipe rigger who was working to shutdown the set of Rust when, according to Sky News, he was bitten by a brown recluse spider. A fundraiser has now been set up to bring in money for medical procedures as Miller is now facing multiple surgeries to deal with the infection that’s been caused as doctor attempt to save his arm. If they cannot, amputation is a possibility.
Needless to say that following on the events that led Rust to being shutdown in the first place, this is terrible news to see. Certainly, this movie just can’t catch a break, as even in shutting it down some pretty terrible things are taking place. If Jason Miller does lose an arm that will change a lot in his life, but of course it will likely mean he’s no longer able to do his job.
The brown recluse is one of the more venomous spiders found in North America. However, New Mexico is significantly more west than the spider is usually found. This makes the bite itself that much more shocking. One would not normally expect to have to worry about this spider in this place.
The fact that the Rust set was being broken down just reinforces the idea that this movie is almost certainly dead and will never actually get made. Alec Baldwin had already indicated that while he wasn’t sure what the ultimate fate of the movie would be, he did not expect the movie to ever happen now following the fatal shooting.
Investigators in New Mexico are still trying to figure out just what went wrong that led to the death of Halyna Hutchins. Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set that somehow still fired a projectile, which struck both Hutchins and the film’s director.
It seemed that there was an error somewhere in the chain of custody of the gun, which resulted in the firearm being declared safe when it was not. However, more recently, attorney’s for on the on-set armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, have suggested that the live round could have been placed among the dummy rounds intentionally in order to cause the accident.
Hopefully this will be the last terrible thing that happens on the set of Rust. And hopefully Jason Miller will get through all this with his arm.