'Rust' will hit theaters in May. Fake guns and rubber bullets were just part of what it took to complete the movie.

Rust has a trailer and release date — three years after the film’s cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on set.

Alec Baldwin was rehearsing a scene for the western film on Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe, N.M., in October 2021 when the prop gun he was using discharged. A live round, which had been mixed in with the fake movie bullets, fatally struck Halyna before lodging in director Joel Souza’s shoulder.

The tragedy has resulted in multiple lawsuits and high-profile trials. The film’s original armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is serving 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter. Baldwin went to trial on the same charge, but his case was dismissed. The original first assistant director, David Halls, pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to probation.

The film went back into production in 2023 and will have a May 2 theatrical release. The new trailer, out March 26, shows that the film didn’t get watered down. There is no shortage of guns and shoot-outs, though Baldwin doesn’t appear to be the triggerman in any of the trailer scenes.

He does utter some lines that hit differently in light of what happened, including “Some things in life you can’t get back, I reckon” and “Heaven ain’t waiting on either one of us.”

The synopsis of the film — for which Baldwin also gets “story by” and “produced by” credits — reads: “In 1880s Wyoming, recently orphaned Lucas Hollister (Patrick Scott McDermott) accidentally kills a rancher and is sentenced to hang. In a twist of fate, his estranged grandfather, the notorious outlaw Harland Rust (Academy Award nominee Alec Baldwin), breaks him out of jail and takes him on the run toward Mexico. As they flee across the unforgiving wilderness, the fugitive pair must outrun the determined U.S. Marshal Wood Helm (Josh Hopkins) and a ruthless bounty hunter named ‘Preacher’ (Travis Fimmel).”

Halyna’s husband, Matthew, and son, Andros, will receive the profits from the film, the press release noted. That’s part of a wrongful death lawsuit settlement reached with film producers. Matthew also received an executive producer credit.

The film premiered in November at the Camerimage Film Festival in Toruń, Poland. The recent Hulu documentary, Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna, noted that Halyna dreamed of showing her work at that festival, which celebrates the artistry of cinematographers.

Souza was in attendance at the premiere. Baldwin was not invited, organizers said.

The film’s long and bumpy road to completion

In the wake of the shooting, filming completely shut down. The New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau fined producers $137,000 for firearms safety failures. Souza told Vanity Fair he thought about quitting filmmaking altogether.

Baldwin said the lawsuit settlement with Matthew, reached in October 2022, hinged on the completion of Halyna’s final film.

“I said to Joel, ‘Are you going to do it? If you think it’s important to do this, I’ll do it. If it’s the only way we can settle the case with [Halyna’s] husband and the estate is to finish the film, let’s do it,” Baldwin told Variety. “So we go to Montana.”

Production resumed in April 2023 on Yellowstone Film Ranch in Pray, Mont.

“All my doctors told me ‘don’t go’ — mental health practitioners, cardiologists,” Baldwin said. “I was very sick afterwards for a while, physically drained and ill. But I went.”

Changes were implemented on the set. Most notably, they only used fake guns and bullets. The new first assistant director, Gerard DiNardi, told the New York Times there would be “nothing that fires,” only “facsimiles of weapons, from rubber to replicas.” Andrew Wert, who took over as the new armorer, said the dummy rounds were made of rubber and wood and then painted gold. Any firing was done digitally.

Bianca Cline replaced Halyna as cinematographer. In the Hulu documentary, she said she tried to preserve as much of the Ukrainian filmmaker’s original footage as possible. She donated her pay to charity.

There were cast changes: Jensen Ackles didn’t return and was replaced by Josh Hopkins. Brady Noon, who originally played the boy at the center of the story, was replaced by Patrick Scott McDermott.

The church scene filmed when the shooting occurred was cut from the film. Souza told Vanity Fair, “It vanishes in its entirety,” in addition to scenes leading up to it, with a portion of the film, which he wrote, being completely reconceived. “I’m glad you asked. I don’t want anyone who ever does see [the film] to be waiting for that [scene].”

Souza told NPR it was “a very tough decision” for him to return, but driving him was being able to finish Halyna’s final film instead of having a stranger do it. He said he “was a wreck through most of the second go around. It's something I still struggle with, [if] I should have or shouldn't have. But I just feel like, for me, that was the right thing to do.”

Souza told Vanity Fair that he ran a tighter ship, making “it very clear in the second iteration, it’s my way or the highway.” That included less input from Baldwin about the creative direction of his character, which Souza said became a “struggle” during the initial shoot.

Baldwin told Variety of the reshoot, “It was a better film in a lot of ways. Other than Halyna.”

Filming wrapped in May 2023. At the time, Baldwin wrote on Instagram, “It’s been a long and difficult road. But we reach the end of the trail today.” He called it, “Nothing less than a miracle.”

Souza told the Hollywood Reporter the shoot “was tough" for Baldwin. “I can only imagine how difficult that was.” Asked by Vanity Fair about his post-film relationship with the actor, Souza replied, “We got through it. I got the performance I wanted. We’re not friends. We’re not enemies. There’s no relationship.”

The film was finished in March 2024.

Supporting the film isn’t supporting Baldwin: Director

According to the press release that accompanied the trailer, the film’s original producers — including Baldwin — will not gain financially from the movie.

“There are people out there who say, ‘I don't want to support [or] put money in Baldwin's pocket or the producers' pocket," Souza told NPR in November. “You're not going to. That's not how this is going to work.”

Baldwin attorney Luke Nikas told the outlet the star completed Rust “for the benefit of Halyna Hutchins’s family and her legacy. He was not paid to complete the film, he has not and will not profit from the film, and he has zero financial interest in the film or any proceeds the film may earn.”

Baldwin told Variety, “The notion that anybody has profited from the film’s sale and distribution is blatantly untrue. I waived my fee [and] waived all my backend. I gave everything to her husband. He owns the film. … From the get-go in the settlement we all said, ‘We don’t want anything! You can have everything!’ And we gave everything, literally.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Baldwin was paid a modest $150,000 to act in the independent film. As a producer, his company was going to earn $100,000 and part of the backend — and, as noted, he waived both. The other original producers were supposed to earn between $100,000 and $150,000.

Baldwin told Variety he wanted the film to be released so “that [Matthew] gets his money. We all made a deal with him and we all want to follow through. But this idea that people — who shall remain nameless — say, ‘You are profiting from this!’ That is absolutely wrong.”

Souza told Vanity Fair that when it was announced a settlement had been reached with Matthew and he would be a producer, he felt the public even “turned on” Matthew. “People were angry, and it’s like: Man, f*** you,” Souza said. “Anybody who’s got a problem with Matt has a problem with goodness in general. This guy is way out of your league in terms of integrity and in terms of just emotional intelligence.”

Will people go see the film — or has it been 'overshadowed' by the tragedy?

Baldwin told Variety he hadn’t watched the completed film. He said that was because it’s “the most difficult thing I’ve ever dealt with in my life” and “I want all things Rust to just leave my windshield.”

In his mind, the film is “always going to be overshadowed by” Halyna’s death.

Souza knows getting moviegoers to see it is a hurdle, telling NPR, “Obviously, the human cost and the tragedy of it overshadows everything, rightfully so, and is so much more important than any movie. I just wonder if people will sort of see past that and engage with it as a film or if it will be a thing where people can't ever separate the movie from what happened during its filming.”

Souza said his only hope is that moviegoers see it for Halyna.

“If people don’t want to watch this movie, for any reason, they certainly don’t need to and there’s no hard feelings from me,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. “But what I hope is that people give it a chance — and if they do, that they look closely at the visual aspects, particularly the cinematography. Because it’s a very unique opportunity to look through Halyna’s eyes and see how she saw the world.”

Rust is in theaters and available on VOD beginning May 2.