‘Rust’ EPs Disavow Responsibility: “Having No Involvement With The Physical And Day To Day Production”

Anthony D'Alessandro

Notes in bold are suggested changes, notes in itals questions, cross-outs suggested edits

Bigger question:

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Is there a way to get all the Rust production companies named somewhere from Rust LLC on down? It will help establish the article is trying to figure out what responsibility each had, and sets up your main question of who owns Rust LLC. Maybe in the section about the producers having to hire non-union crew? I think it might help establish a nut graf to tell readers what we’re trying to accomplish/suss out in this story.

As the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department continues to probe assistant director Dave Halls and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s alleged responsibilities leading up to the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Alec Baldwin Western indie Rust last week, two of the film’s executive producers are seemingly wiping their hands clean of the situation.

Speaking on behalf of the now shuttered production, Allen Cheney made it known in a statement provided to the press yesterday that he, along with Emily Salveson and her Streamline Global finance company, “received Executive Producer credit on the film Rust having no involvement with the physical and day to day production,” which is “consistent with financing partners across productions of all sizes.”

Cheney further defended the experience of the producers of the production, which saw Baldwin on October 21 discharge a long Colt .45 revolver during a “quick draw” rehearsal, with a “live round” striking Hutchins and director Joel Souza, according to police. Baldwin, who also serves as a producer on Rust, was informed by Halls that he had what’s known as a “cold gun.” That was not the case, as the death of Hutchins and injuring of the film’s director Joel Souza in the shoulder that afternoon tragically revealed.

“The six credited producers on the independent film Rust, Ryan Smith, Alec Baldwin, Nathan Klingher, Ryan Winterstern, Matt DelPiano and Anjul Nigam, collectively have more than 35 years’ experience producing small to mid-level film and television projects,” said Cheney’s statement.

“Rust is a union-certified production, in good standing with all of the major production unions and guilds, including IATSE, the Teamsters, SAG, and DGA,” said Cheney. IATSE ripped Rust for hiring non-union crew when the camera team walked out.

Many have tried to sort out who is financially responsible for the oversee of a production that allegedly cut corners, and hired nonunion staffers with questionable pasts and inexperience.

Here’s what we’ve parsed out.

First and foremost, Bondit Media Capital did not have any equity stake in Rust, despite being named a co-financier. We’ve learned that the production finance lender, whose feature credits include the upcoming Bruce Willis-John Travolta reteam Paradise City, loaned money to production against distribution collateral. Bondit did not respond for comment on this story.

Sources close to production have informed us that Matt DelPiano, Souza and Baldwin’s manager, doesn’t have an equity stake in Rust, ditto for his latter client. Baldwin produced through his El Dorado Pictures banner while DelPiano has a production credit under his company Cavalry Media.

Still, District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told NBC News on Wednesday night that she hasn’t ruled out Baldwin as a person of interest in her probe.

“He’s very important. He’s the one that pulled the trigger. He’s the one that was holding the gun. And so he’s very important. Does that mean that charges will be filed? Not necessarily. It also doesn’t mean that they won’t be filed,” she said.

Production sources tell Deadline while Rust is a $7 million production, monies raised through a North American distribution rights sale to The Avenue as well as foreign presales from Highland Group have amounted to $3 million.

Sources say neither Highland nor The Avenue have equity stakes in Rust; frequently, distribution and ancillary rights are licensed for a period of time by distributor. In this situation, while Highland and Avenue didn’t send money directly to Rust LLC, the production was able to turn to BondIt, who lent money to the production at slightly less than the presales accrued.

Cheney and Salveson also served as EPs, and Ryan Donnell Smith, Klingher, Winterstern, and Nigam as producers on the Alec Baldwin indie production Supercell.

Salveson and Smith both served as co-EPs on the Oscar-nominated Netflix film The Trial of the Chicago 7 and have co-financed a number of other titles reportedly through the Section 181 tax code, which allows wealthy investors to deduct their investment in a feature project up to $15 million.

With New Mexico tax credits between 25%-35%, Variety has reported that under Salveson’s model, investors can recoup their investment before a movie is distributed. Salveson, in an interview with Film Daily says that the m.o. of Streamline Global is that “Film finance should be just as fair, transparent, and reasonable as finance is in any other industry.” She also boasts in the Film Daily story that she has a multi-picture development deal with Chicago 7 co-financier Cross Creek. A rep for Cross Creek told Deadline that Streamline Global doesn’t have a multi-pic deal, but rather was simply an investor in Chicago 7 with no producing authority.

“By making film investment sensible and unemotional, Streamline Global naturally dissuades ego-based investors from spreading their toxicity in our industry,” added Salveson, the granddaughter of Dr. Melvin Salveson, founder in the mid-1960s of the Electronics Currency Corporation, which was responsible for creating the system that facilitated the operation of MasterCard and Visa.

All of this begs the question: Who owns and operates Rust Movie Productions LLC? Source inform us it’s Cheney and Smith, both being Salveson’s Streamline Global business partners, who also operate the production company Thomasville Pictures, one of the producers on Rust as indicated in previous casting announcements for the film on Deadline. Thomasville were also partners on Baldwin’s previous feature project Supercell, which has not yet been released.

According to the LLC business filings in New Mexico for Rust LLC, and Thomasville in Georgia, both companies share the same exact business address of 502 S. Broad Street, Thomasville, GA, a Neoclassical Revival house built in 1907 known as The Elijah Leon Neel House.

Production sources inform Deadline that Smith bought the Rust script from Baldwin. A WGA rep tells Deadline that “we have no records that reflect that this project was written under the Guild’s jurisdiction. The company is not signatory and the writer (Souza) is not a member of the WGA.”

In addition, sources who prefer to remain anonymous tell us that Smith was the day-to-day producer on Rust, who hired 3rd Shift Media, a production services company based in Atlanta. One of the key people at 3rd Shift Media, not to be confused with Ryan Donnell Smith, is Ryan Dennett Smith who owns 3rd Shift Media. Production sources also tell Deadline that it was 3rd Shift Media, which includes employees Gabrielle Pickle, Rust‘s line producer, and UPM Row Walters, who were involved in hiring Halls and Gutierrez-Reed. Several calls, texts and emails by Deadline to 3rd Shift Media, Pickle, and Walters were not returned. However, we do know that Pickle served as the line producer on Supercell, while Walters served as production coordinator. As the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office probe continues, below-the-line workers on Rust are lawyering up, i.e. script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, who was standing next to Hutchins and Souza when they were shot, has tapped high-power attorney Gloria Allred.

As The Rust production performs its own internal investigation into what went wrong on the day of the fatal shooting, tapping high-profile law firm Jenner & Block to interview cast and crew, and as the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department and OSHA’s New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau;s inquiries continue, reports have speculated that the production, which remains closed down for an undetermined amount of time, stand to lose millions; TMZ is reporting that the film’s insurance policy covers a maximum of $6 million for injury and death.

What to do? In such instances, perhaps it’s best to heed the advice of Salveson’s great grand uncle, whose wisdom she shares in her Film Daily Q&A:

“My great-grand uncle Gerald Loeb told my dad, ‘Don’t fall in love with your investments,’ and he passed the same wisdom along to me. I find that when I look at my investments objectively and without emotion, I make better decisions that lead to higher profit and overall success.”

Dominic Patten contributed to this report.

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