By Anthony McCartney, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --The parents of an assistant propmaster killed in an accident during the filming of “The Kingdom” have sued director Peter Berg, seeking reimbursement of funeral expenses and other damages.
Berg was traveling in a sport utility vehicle in August 2006 when it collided with a golf cart-sized vehicle on a road near Mesa, Ariz. The impact killed Nick Papac, who was working on the closed set of “The Kingdom,” an action thriller starring Jaime Foxx and Jennifer Garner.
Papac’s parents, Mike Papac and Michele Bell, filed suit against the director, a driver and a production company in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday. They are asking for an unspecified amount that would include the costs of the funeral, lost earnings and medical expenses.
The film had just finished shooting for the day on a closed stretch of highway on the far eastern side of metropolitan Phoenix when Papac, 25, was struck. A statement released by the filmmakers at the time said that Papac collided with Berg’s SUV and was attended to by paramedics for Universal Pictures/Forward Pass. He later died at a hospital.
Berg’s attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday morning.
Mike Papac is a longtime Hollywood propmaster. Studio officials said at the time of the accident that he was at his son’s side at the time of his death.
His attorney declined to discuss specifics about the case, saying it was still in its early stages.
Berg, whose directing credits include this summer’s blockbuster “Hancock” and previous films such as “Friday Night Lights,” was not injured in the crash.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More