By Russ Bynum
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) --The father of a film worker killed by a train during shooting of a movie about singer Gregg Allman said Tuesday that granting the film's director early release from a two-year jail sentence for involuntary manslaughter would send a message "that Hollywood gets a break."
Former "Midnight Rider" director Randall Miller has asked a Georgia judge to set him free less than a year after he pleaded guilty to felony charges in the February 2014 train collision. A 27-year-old camera assistant, Sarah Jones, was run over by a freight train as Miller's crew filmed a scene on a railroad bridge without a permit from the trestle's owner.
Miller's attorneys say he deserves to be freed early because of good behavior as well as concerns for the 53-year-old director's health.
Jones' father, Richard Jones, responded with a letter to Superior Court Judge Anthony Harrison asking him to deny the director's request.
"There is a need to maintain a strong message to the film industry that those in charge of their cast and crew will be held responsible for their safety," Jones' father wrote in a letter dated Monday. "That such reckless disregard for safety will not be tolerated."
Miller's plea deal last March not only spared him from a possible 11-year-prison sentence if he was convicted by a trial jury, but it also included an agreement by prosecutors to drop criminal charges against the director's wife and business partner, Jody Savin.
Asked by phone Tuesday what he feared the message would be if Miller won early release after serving less than half his jail term, Richard Jones said: "That Hollywood gets a break. I'm not going to say it's a slap on the wrist. But it certainly sends a message of leniency."
Miller's attorney, Ed Garland, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
A legal motion by Miller's lawyers says his family is concerned that recent weight gain, shortness of breath and elevated blood pressure the director has experienced in jail may be signs of congestive heart failure. It also says he's been a model prison who has worked long hours in the jail laundry, tutored inmates in a GED program and helped edit a film on the local drug court.
"Mr. Miller has relived the day of the accident over and over and has taken full responsibility," the director's court filing said.
His attorneys also wrote that Wayne County Sheriff John Carter has the authority to reduce Miller's sentence by half for good behavior – which would mean the director could be released in early March, even if the judge denies his request.
Carter said Tuesday he doubts that he could free Miller early because the director was jailed for a felony. He said Georgia law gives sheriffs leeway to shorten the sentences of inmates jailed for misdemeanors or for probation violations.
"The only thing I agreed to when they were doing the plea bargain was about him serving his two years in my jail rather than in prison," Carter said. "I don't know that I've got any authority to grant early release on a felony."
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More