Santa Monica-based Area 51 Films has named Creative Management Partners (CMP) as its sales representative on the East Coast. Area 51 continues to be repped in the Midwest by Doug Stieber, in the South by Alyson Griffith and on the West Coast by Connie Mellors….Mary Knox and Alyson Daniels have closed Help!, their two-year-old repping company with offices in Minneapolis and New York. Daniels is leaving the biz to pursue a real estate sales career in Upstate New York. Knox will continue repping via her new company, Sales & Marketing (S&M), Minneapolis and New York. S&M handles East Coast sales for Dallas-based directorz and New York-headquartered Shooting Gallery Productions; the East Coast, Midwest and Texas for bicoastal Lost Planet; and national sales for Trivers/Myers Music, Manhattan Beach, Calif. Additionally, Knox is head of sales for Shooting Gallery Productions. Angelina Powers is joining S&M as a New York-based rep….Crash Films, Santa Monica, has signed Chicago-based rep Laura Candler to handle the Midwest….Digital Artists Agency (DAA), Los Angeles, has signed visual effects supervisor Michael Gibson for worldwide representation in commercials, features and entertainment television. Headed by industry vet Bob Coleman, DAA specializes in repping and handling career management for freelance effects artists….Production designer/illustrator Simon Murton has finished work on The Matrix II and The Matrix III and is available exclusively via Lyons•Sheldon•Prosnit Agency, Los Angeles….
Alec Baldwin Urges Judge To Stand By Dismissal Of Involuntary Manslaughter Case In “Rust” Shooting
Alec Baldwin urged a New Mexico judge on Friday to stand by her decision to skuttle his trial and dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
State District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin halfway through a trial in July based on the withholding of evidence by police and prosecutors from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."
The charge against Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be revived once any appeals of the decision are exhausted.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey recently asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that there were insufficient facts and that Baldwin's due process rights had not been violated.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on "Rust," was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
The case-ending evidence was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff's office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins' killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin's lawyers alleged that they "buried" it and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.
In her decision to dismiss the Baldwin case, Marlowe Sommer described "egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct" by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as false testimony about physical evidence by a witness during the trial.
Defense counsel says that prosecutors tried to establish a link... Read More