Firearms remain commonplace in major blockbusters but industry figures say
Hollywood is led by audience demand
As
police investigations continue into the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins as a result of a
shooting during production of the Alec Baldwin film Rust, calls to ban real firearms on film and TV sets have intensified, with legislators in
California and New
Mexico threatening to take action if the entertainment industry does not.
The continuing presence of guns on sets has also reopened the wider debate over the prevalence of gun violence on our screens, and its potentially harmful effects. For Steven Gaydos, executive VP of content for Variety, the nature of screen violence is dictated less by
American gun culture than the realities of the international film market. “Gunplay in movies is arguably bigger now than it’s ever been,” he says. “If you try finance a movie you will quickly discover that if you aren’t killing somebody – via horror, or guns, or superheroes – you are in an area where nobody wants to go.”