UPDATE: 16 Injured On ‘Resident Evil’ Set; 7 Already Back To Work, Producers Say

COMMENTS (18)

• I hope everyone is ok,filming the movie is important-but-THEIR LIVES ARE MORE IMPORTANT! Hopefully the movie does well next year ,as, the “Resident evil” films are always a lot of fun. Thank you 4 posting my comments.

  Comment by jennifer — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 11:46am PDT  Reply to this post

• Someone’s getting fired.

  Comment by negligent — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 11:50am PDT  Reply to this post

• YIKES! Hope all are ok. But since these were extras and not stunt people, and this was clearly a human error issue….I smell a big lawsuit. That sucks.

  Comment by me0w — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 11:57am PDT  Reply to this post

• Ugh, I get a sinking feeling whenever stuff like this happens. I hope there’s a full investigation. I’m sure with stuff like this it SEEMS like every precaution is being taken, but there’s often something basic that has been overlooked that ended up causing the accident. Hope everyone recovers quickly.

  Gotta admit, though, a paramedic responding to the set of a zombie movie and freaking out a little at the sight of all the “flesh wounds” is kinda funny.

  Comment by Justin Sevakis — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 11:58am PDT  Reply to this post

• “The thoughts of everyone (involved in the production) are with those who….” This phrase is getting really tiresome…… The “thoughts” aren’t worth @$*@…

  Comment by MexyMartini — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 12:51pm PDT  Reply to this post

• First the whole gun/anti-terrorist debacle on the World War Z set, now this (not to mention the problems The Walking Dead has with AMC). There’s been an omen on zombie projects lately.

  Comment by Prax — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 12:59pm PDT  Reply to this post

• No need for a strong independent actors union. The producers will do right by these injured actors out of the goodness of their producing hearts.

  Comment by Simon — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 1:53pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Jesus, I’m glad I wasn’t doing extra work that day. Back injuries never really go away. That poor bastard is going to be hurting for life, all for the generous non-union rate of $8.

  There needs to be a clear line between background and stunts. I was an extra on the set of Deadliest Warrior and playing a KGB agent who was going to be kicked in the chest by a stunt guy playing a Russian assassin. After a few practice kicks I almost punched the phoney stunt guy in the face because he kept connecting with my chest and clearly had never learned to pull his punches. When the time came to shoot, the director watched our action and told us to have him kick me in the throat. I’m not one to stir the pot but I stood up, and yelled to the director that “I’m not going to let this fucking idiot kick me in the throat. He has no idea what he’s doing!” The director relented and we did the kick to the chest instead.

  Unfortunately not every background actor has the guts or knowledge to standup for him or herself in a dangerous situation, especially the non-union ones, and I’m sure this shitty director and fake stunt guy are still kicking background actors in the throats.

  Comment by OopsISaidItAgain — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 1:53pm PDT  Reply to this post

• More reason to bring production back to the states….i’m not positive that Canadian OSHA rules are as stringent on filming as they are here in the US.

  Comment by stephen mccafferty — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 2:43pm PDT  Reply to this post

• you know they dont care about the background actors… they’re just worried about lawsuits and stuff.

  Comment by dman — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 3:07pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Was Michael Bay’s 1st AD running this crew?

  Comment by Ace — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 3:10pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Who is the stunt coordinator? Did they hire someone with years of experience and a solid safety record? Or did they opt to save money? Who is in charge?

  Comment by questioner — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 4:32pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Wish I could have seen the looks on the faces of the paramedics who responded to a call and found a studio full of zombies.

  Comment by Anonymous — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 5:13pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I’m glad none of them were life threatening images! I hope for a good recovery guys!

  With that said….I hope this footage will make it into the final cut. No, I’m not trolling here but putting yourself out there for ones craft is the most noble thing and it would give tribute to the bodily sacrifice they gave.

  Comment by Harry — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 5:17pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Typo “..life threatening injury’s”

    Comment by Harry — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 5:18pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • I think you meant to print “injuries,” (no apostrophe, and plural spelling is used) actually, but your viewpoint is solid here.

      I’ve been in so many films in NYC where heavy action was called for and at times, I was asked to do things crossing over into “stunt” but always with total supervision by a top Stunt Coordinator, and eye out for safety.

      Guess I’m just lucky to work in the NYC area, had no idea things were so different in other places.

      Everyone has to start somewhere tho, but I have noticed over time that there’s been problems working in scenes where many Non-SAG people are placed.

      Not sure what it is and why, but one theory is Non-SAG people are less honed and get really hyped up when the camera rolls maybe feeling it’s “their moment suddenly” and there really have been times I was shoved and edged off my marks and moves, which I learned how to be solid with so this wouldn’t happen. The marks are set by the AD to make sure things go right, and when emotions supersede reason, things can go awry sometimes.

      I’m sorry this happened to the people playing the zombies – it’s a tricky and vulnerable position, and playing this right does seem to call for more action and emotion than just a normal street scene or something.

      - Amanda

      Comment by Amanda — Thursday October 13, 2011 @ 12:10pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Can’t wait, this franchise is my guilty pleasure! Though I do prefer Jolie, as a female action star.

  Comment by Sean — Tuesday October 11, 2011 @ 6:47pm PDT  Reply to this post

• “Well,it’s all fun and games until the someone suffers a life threatening injury”. And there you have it folks! We as an industry have for so long now allowed for the bad behavior of cheap production companies and they’re poorly chosen staffs, it is now par for the course to risk life and limp in order to get the shot and get it cheap! This happens because the producers have nothing to fear in the way of reprisals from city, county , state or even federal agencies. “Once upon a time” a report such as this would have made a bigger splash, with big head lines and a fallow up on the news about the fines and penalties the producers would have to pay. But it seems that those times are all gone now. HHHmmmmm? It’s a shame that an incident such as this can happen and only a very few industry professionals care enough to even commit. It’s sad to think of all those who where hurt just because unqualified people were making bad decisions. But most of all, it would seem to be horrible to think about the fact that any production company can get away with this type of negligence, and not have to face any kind of city, state or even some kind of government action. That scares me. We in this film business seem to be abandoned by the law. Think about it,
  My deepest sympathies to those injured in this event,

  Comment by Mark E. Fenlason — Friday October 14, 2011 @ 4:50am PDT  Reply to this post