Dwayne Johnson is one of the busiest people in the entertainment industry, constantly working as an actor and producer. For the latter job he works with his production company Seven Bucks, which is behind the various projects Johnson is attached to. And following the tragedy on the set of Alec Baldwin’s Rust, The Rock has pledged to end the use of real guns on set.
Throughout his successful career Dwayne Johnson has done a ton of action, including a number of notable onscreen gunfights. His newest movie Red Notice is certainly no exception, with that project recently celebrating its world premiere. On the red carpet Johnson was asked his reaction to the tragic death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust, where he said:
I can’t speak for other production companies or other studios. I can tell you, though, what we should do in a scenario like this is learn from it. And as we move forward, I think there are new protocols and safety measures that we should take. Especially in the wake of what just happened. I can’t speak to anyone else but I can tell you, without an absence of clarity here, that every movie or television show that we move forward with Seven Bucks or anything that we produce: we won’t use real guns at all. We’re going to switch over to rubber guns. We’re going to take care of it in post. We’re not going to worry about the dollars.
Well, there you have it. It looks like Dwayne Johnson and his collaborators at Seven Bucks are making a massive change to future sets. Specifically real guns will no longer be used to film, in order to prevent another tragic accident from happening. We’ll just have to see if other studios or production companies will follow suit in the wake of Halyna Hutchins’ death.
Dwayne Johnson’s comments to Variety at the premiere of Red Notice show how the tragedy of Halyna Hutchins’s death has continued to make waves in the film industry as a whole. Using real guns with fake rounds is commonplace on sets, but that won’t be the case for The Rock in future projects. Instead he’ll make the weapons look real thanks to visual effects in the post-production process.
Having sets free of real guns is something that Dwayne Johnson and Seven Bucks have committed to, but it’s unclear if this is a trend that will be followed by other filmmakers. But the industry has been shown to be resilient; TV and film sets around the world quickly adapted to new safety protocols put in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19. As such, it might be the perfect time to make another major change to the way sets are run.
While Dwayne Johnson is just one person, he’s a powerful producer who is always working on a number of projects at the same time. And with franchises like Jumanji, Jungle Cruise, and Black Adam all moving forward with prop guns in the future, perhaps other production companies will be inspired and see it could be done. We’ll just have to wait and see how the film industry continues to change, especially as the Rust investigation continues.
Red Notice will arrive on Netflix November 12th. In the meantime, check out the 2021 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.