‘Rust’ Fallout: Unions and Studios at Odds Over Firearm Rules

variety.com:

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterHollywood unions and entertainment studios both support doing something to tighten firearms safety rules in the wake of the “Rust” shooting.But they don’t agree on what that something is, and the disagreement has dimmed the chances of new set safety legislation out of Sacramento this year.On Thursday, Sen.

Anthony Portantino held up two bills — SB 829 and SB 831 — that reflected the competing approaches of the studios and the unions.

In an interview on Friday, Portantino said he still believes that a deal can get done by the end of this legislative session in August.“The issue is whether both sides want to come together to achieve consensus,” said Portantino, who authored the studio-backed bill. “I think they were relatively close.” But Sen.

Dave Cortese, who authored the union-backed bill, gave a more pessimistic take. Cortese said he had weeks of meetings with the Motion Picture Association — the studios’ lobbying arm — and that the union side had made concessions to try to accommodate the studios’ concerns.“I think it’s all been a ruse on their part,” Cortese said. “If they wanted a version of this bill, we’d have it right now… I think their real position is they don’t want either bill.”Both sides appear to agree on the need for new training requirements for film and TV armorers.Detectives in Santa Fe, N.M., are still investigating the “Rust” shooting, which killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.