By Russ Bynum
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) --The director of an ill-fated movie about singer Gregg Allman said Friday that it's "ultimately my responsibility" that his crew ended up on a Georgia railroad bridge in the path of a freight train that killed a camera assistant.
"Midnight Rider" director Randall Miller issued a statement to The Associated Press less than two weeks after he pleaded guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespassing. A judge sentenced him to two years in jail in rural Wayne County, where 27-year-old Sarah Jones of Atlanta died in the train crash Feb. 20, 2014. Six others also were injured.
"It was a horrible tragedy that will haunt me forever," Miller said in a statement provided to The AP by a publicist. "Although I relied on my team, it is ultimately my responsibility and was my decision to shoot the scripted scene that caused this tragedy."
Miller said he hoped his guilty plea had spared Jones' family from the anguish of having to relive the crash at a trial. But he also denied he alone was to blame. He said "a great number of mistakes were made" by his assistants on the film crew, but acknowledged that he had failed to ensure "every safety measure was in place."
"I have taken responsibility because I could have asked more questions and I was the one in charge," Miller said.
Prosecutors said they had emails from CSX Transportation, which owns the railroad bridge spanning the Altamaha River, showing Miller's crew had twice been denied permission to film a scene on the tracks where the crash occurred.
Miller pleaded guilty March 9, the day a jury was to be selected for his trial. Assistant District Attorney John B. Johnson said Miller and others knew they had been denied permission to access the railroad trestle because they attempted to rewrite the script to drop the scene they planned to shoot with actor William Hurt — in the role of Allman — in a hospital bed placed on the tracks.
Miller decided to shoot the scene anyway, Johnson said, after the owner of the property surrounding the tracks said the movie crew could access its land. He said Miller and his crew went onto the railroad bridge after mistakenly thinking no more trains would pass that day.
Jay Sedrish, the movie's executive producer, also pleaded guilty and assistant director Hillary Schwartz was convicted after opting for the judge to decide her case in a short bench trial. Both were sentenced to 10 years on probation for the same charges Miller faced.
Miller also was sentenced to serve eight years on probation following his jail term and was ordered to pay a $20,000 fine. He said he pleaded guilty in part to protect his wife and business partner, Jody Savin, and their children. Charges against Savin were dropped as a condition of her husband's guilty plea.
"Our children and I love Randy so much and are trying to be strong for him as he has been so strong and brave for us," Savin said in a brief statement.
Miller's previous films included "Bottle Shock" and "CBGB." The "Midnight Rider" project has been in limbo since the train crash. Allman sued Miller last year to prevent the director from reviving the movie. They settled out of court and terms were not disclosed.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More