TV shows are getting big enough to warrant a full run the movie doesn’t always happen. But when it does, it’s meaningful in some way, even if it’s just the fact that the creators involved managed to remove it in the first place. And men the movie case for CBS’ blurred areaits importance is due to the circumstances of its production.
Originally published on June 24, 1983, Twilight Zone: The Movie was based on Rod Serling’s science fiction anthology series of the same name, which ended nearly two decades prior in 1964. series, the film was divided into multiple segments, each featuring its own cast and directors. The first segment, “Time Out”, involves was written and directed by filmmaker John Landis (father of Max Landis)and resulted in the death of lead lawr Vic Morrow (playing the character of Bill Connor) and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen.
On July 23, 1982, Landis violated California child labor laws by dumping Chen and Le without the required permits. He further broke the law by paying them to show up on set at night, which was already a danger to children because of the explosives that would be used to simulate the Vietnam War experience. Filming the night scene also involved a low-flying helicopter, which lost control of explosives and killed all three of them instantly. Deaths on set are tragic enough, but what made this one so infamous was that it seemed completely preventable from the start: the children’s parents were not told that their children would be near helicopters or explosives, which even the film’s casting agents were apparently unaware of. And Per testimonials to the nearly ten years accident trial, Landis ordered the helicopter to descend lower than originally intended (or necessary) and reportedly dismissed concerns about its low height to begin with.
Jhe helicopter crash has become definitive in many ways. For Landis, it led to the erosion of his friendship with the film’s co-EP Steven Spielberg and the actor. Eddie Murphy, who had worked three times with Landis (including two after blurred area movie release). Likewise, although the director was acquitted alongside production manager Dan Allingham, associate producer George Folsey Jr. and others in 1986 and 1987this verdict has not ceased the incident of becoming a reference point (or punch) when talking about him. The vibrations around this part of the film were so bad that even a second assistant director chose to be credited as “Alan Smithee”, a pseudonym used when they wanted to distance themselves from a troubled project.
For Hollywood as a whole, this led to the creation of the California Fire Department’s Motion Picture & Entertainment Unit, which enforces fire safety regulations and requirements in the entertainment industry. A safety committee for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) would begin issuing regular safety bulletins and a hotline related to on-set safety, and began disciplining members who violated safety procedures on set. the tray. As a result of its rules being effectively enforced, on-set deaths dropped by almost 70% bbetween 1982 and 1986.
Even with new security measures yesterday and today, wounded and dead still happens during the making of a movies. SSometimes you hear a story like Tom Cruise break your ankle jump for Mission: Impossible—Fallout and think nothing beyond “Ooh, that’s hard.” In other cases, things are much more tragic: in 2016, Dylan O’Brien nearly died while filming a stunt for Maze Runner: The Cure for Death; stuntwoman/motorcycle racer Joi “SJ” Harris died the following year film a stunt for Deadpool 2. In 2021 on the set of Rust, Alec Baldwin fired a live round from a prop gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. It was only recently that the saga of this incident came to an end, with charps against Baldwin be abandoned of the this past April.
In the decades since the blurred area the movie’s release, it’s hard to tell if things have really improved, or if they’ve just stabilized to be basically the same. This probably isn’t the worst tragedy in all of Hollywood, but just saying that is damning in itself. It’s only recently that we’ve really started to count with how the entire the entertainment industry – from writers to VFX Artiststo those who work in animation-maybe unnecessarily exploitative and harmful for people who want to be part of it. Near-death shouldn’t be part of the welcome to make a movie.
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