Few movies have endured quite as much controversy as Alec Baldwin’s Rust. The incoming Western started development all the way back in 2020, but a major snag has seen the film face heavy delays.
For a while, people expected the flick to face a full cancellation, but it seems the team behind Rust is still determined to see the film come to fruition despite the ongoing pushback following cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ death. An accident on set resulted in the 42-year-old’s death after she was shot in the chest by Baldwin, who was operating what he believed to be a gun filled with blanks. Instead, he fired a live round, which inadvertently killed Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.
The team behind Rust, and in particular Baldwin, faced broad backlash in the wake of the shooting, and Rust was put on an “indefinite” hiatus. That hiatus concluded back in 2023, however, which means we could see the film landing in theaters relatively soon.
Do we know when Rust is set to release?
Rust was only 12 days into filming when the accident occurred, and the following break from filming only makes things harder now that the film is once again in development. In fact, production is fully concluded, which just leaves the latter parts of development to be completed.
Filming for Rust was delayed by several years, in the wake of Hutchins’ death, but it resumed in mid-2023. Baldwin and his fellow actors — those who returned, anyway — concluded filming in late April of 2023, and filmmakers have been polishing the final product ever since. There’s still no official release date slated for the contentious film, but it should be nearly ready for its big theatrical debut by now.
It’s hard to anticipate Rust’s likely release window based on other film development timelines and due to the myriad of issues the film has faced. Given the completion of filming, however, it will likely be nearing the end of production by mid-2024. This could see it releasing as soon as fall of 2024, and we estimate no later than summer of 2025.