Movie team veteran, injured in a skirmish, blames Amazon for his pain

In March 2023, producers of Amazon’s entertainment film “Candy Cane Lane,” starring Eddie Murphy, had Progressive prepare a 15-foot cedar fire for a scene, according to court papers filed in an updated lawsuit. ,

However, court documents say the weather is no longer cooperating. The makers had already canceled the blast on several occasions due to rain and winds.

But, this hour, production will proceed amid winds blowing up to 30 miles per day, court papers say.

A strong gust sent I’m Ready Flight’s tent flying to a visual consequences manager John Farhat. In the lawsuit filed to end his fall, Mr. Farhat said the tent speared him in the back and threw him into the air “as if he had been caught in a tornado.” He landed in the garden subconsciously.

Nearly fifteen months have passed, and 66-year-old Mr. Farhat is still essentially bedridden in his home, neither able to sit up nor sit up for more than a short period of time. He has five vertebrae and two ribs. He said he needed an ambulance to take him to medical appointments. And his recovery effort has been made all the more frustrating, he says, by what he describes as a mess of workers’ comp reimbursement red tape that has left him disillusioned with his doctors and his pain control plan.

In their lawsuit, filed in September in Los Angeles Superior Court, they accuse Amazon Studios, its manufacturing services company, a manufacturer and others of negligence, saying, among other things, that the tent was not properly fastened. Lawyers for Amazon Studios and alternative defendants denied that they were negligent, liable or differently culpable for Mr. Farhat’s accidents.

However, Mr Farhat, undaunted, said in an interview that he felt it was important for him to talk about his disaster now, especially after another incident at Amazon in April that injured several people. Were.

“I’ve been playing it safe for a year now and trying to play by the rules and not offend anyone and not say anything,” he said. “It all feels shaky.”

Scrutiny of the adequacy of safety protocols on film and television sets is increasing as high-profile incidents draw more attention, such as the shooting death of the “Rust” cinematographer that ultimately ended in criminal charges.

In the wake of that shooting in 2021, the Los Angeles Times analyzed occupational safety and situation management data and reported that nearly 250 serious injuries occurred during film production since 1990.

On-set safety is a major factor for the Global Alliance of Theatrical Degree Workers as the union representing approximately 170,000 behind-the-scenes team participants negotiates its case with studios and some streamers. Specifically, the union is seeking to increase penalties when employers fail to provide required team residual classes or require employees to work excessively long hours, defined as more than 60 hours a day. Is.

The union declined to talk about Mr. Farhat’s case or the Atlanta incident.

“I’ve heard some very negative things about crews from producers,” said Melanie A. Ragone, a veteran Hollywood performer, describing her years of experience on many film sets. “This is what I hate. Why are we coming out and risking our lives and killing ourselves for you? Why is the crew being treated as if we are doomed?”

There have been three serious incidents at Amazon within a few years, with the Atlanta-area accident being the latest. It happened on April 20 on the set of the film “The Pickup”, which coincidentally also stars Mr. Murphy. A stunt went wrong and a collision between two vehicles was captured on film.

Monitoring which main studio was located in the suite where the major accident occurred can also be challenging, partly because few safety violations have been filed against film production subcontractors. However, the collection of contemporary injuries on Amazon units, prior to age, no longer seems out of the ordinary, given the total collection of such injuries occurring on each date.

In the Atlanta field hit, an armored truck and an SUV collided and ran off the road. Eight people have been sent to the clinic – two with what the government described as life-threatening accidents and the third with serious injuries.

One, Marvin Haven, spent several days in a intensive care unit with what crowd participants reported were injuries that included damaged ribs, a punctured lung and a skull fracture that required facial reconstructive surgery.

The second victim, Wayne Rowe, also suffered horrific injuries, including a fracture to his spine, a broken wrist and a serious head injury, his wife said on a page raising funds for him. The accident is under review through OSHA.

The third incident occurred in 2020, when a stuntwoman was injured when her head crashed on the bottom fitting of the tank she was riding on during a practice session for “The Lord of the Rings”. The Rings: The Rings of Power, in line with Amazon and WorkSafe, New Zealand’s executive fitness and safety regulator.

WorkSafe said the regulator was informed about the shock six days later and a report said “risk assessment, employee engagement, hazard identification, monitoring and review structures were not as cohesive as they could have been.”

Amazon declined to comment on the three injuries without comment, although it has defended its safety record as a producer of the films.

“The well-being of the entire team and cast is our first priority,” Amazon noted ahead of the crash at the Atlanta-area I’m Ready. “We will continue to insist on the highest industry standards of safety during filming. All safety precautions were reviewed before the shoot and monitored during the shoot.

OSHA cited 4 violations in reference to “Candy Cane Lane”, including not timely reporting of a major concussion. It imposed a fine of $7,200 for the violations. The petitions have been filed against Big Indie Sweet Inc., which Mr. Farhat’s lawsuit identifies as the manufacturing services company hired by Amazon to oversee the film. Corporate is interesting.

Despite the fact that Amazon controls the production and promotes them under the Amazon logo, the corporate constantly employs a manufacturing service and product corporate to control daily operations. That company typically outsources insurance coverage, payroll, and gear services and products to alternative third-party contractors. Despite the fact that some film productions are structured this way, especially in the case of distant motion pictures or motion pictures shot outside the country, professionals state that it is more likely than locally produced films produced through legacy studios. This is unusual for motion pictures.

One effect of outsourcing so much film production, professionals say, is that Amazon reduces its direct criminal legal responsibility.

anatomy of a conflict

Before his stroke, Mr. Farhat, a 33-year Hollywood veteran, used to be a popular visual effects manager, overseeing computer-generated graphics on more than 20 films, five of which were with Mr. Murphy. (When Mr. Murphy creates certain characters in his films, such as “Dr. Dolittle,” it is most often Mr. Farhat who works in conjunction with motion-capture cameras to capture Mr. Murphy’s various appearances in each And every option.) He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on “The Mask.”

These days, as he reflects on what may have resulted in negligence in the production of “Candy Cane Lane”, he blames the manufacturing system which he describes as disorganized.

Mr. Farhat said that director Reginald Hudlin requested the film’s screenwriter to rewrite the script on I’m Ready because Mr. Hudlin was reshaping the film. Despite the fact that it was initially planned as a fun Christmas movie, Mr. Farhat said Mr. Hudlin transformed it into what the director once described as “a film in the spirit of ‘Avengers: Endgame’.” It was described as an action-adventure film.

At one stage, in the middle of construction, Mr. Hudlin gathered his team of 100 in the Common Backlot, knowing that while he knew some people were angry at the number of rewrites, the situation was unlikely to change, Sir. Farhat told.

Four different people who worked on I’m Ready accurately stated in interviews that the script was constantly changing and the production was sometimes badly organized. The two men recall running fast while shooting in snowy conditions on the same day.

“When we arrived we never knew what we were doing,” Mr. Farhat said, “and that changed when we arrived.”

Mr. Hudlin declined to comment. However others who worked on the film described the challenging production conditions as traditional for a big-budget film with special effects. The film’s executive producer Douglas Merrifield, who is a defendant in Mr. Farhat’s suit, disputed Mr. Farhat’s characterization of the order given on the set.

“I really enjoyed the experience of working on this project, working with Reggie, this artist, and Amazon,” he said.

Amazon described Mr. Hudlin in a comment as “an incredible partner” who “ran a professional set and delivered the film on time and on budget.”

The comment noted, “To suggest that he did anything other than this is completely false.”

Mr. Farhat sustained injuries during the explosion that occurred on March 29, 2023, and was treated by a team from another unit after preliminary images from the film. Mr. Hudlin, as director, was not there at the time as second unit crews are usually assigned additional filming work that does not involve the lead actor or other key executives.

In Mr Farhat’s court documents, he says a tent designed to protect camera equipment was improperly erected and not connected to the garden. The suit says winds blew the tent toward Mr. Farhat at about 1:45 p.m.

“Be careful!” Someone yelled, according to court documents. (Mr. Farhat has also created a video animation that provides a visual reconstruction of the incident that occurred.)

Now, Mr Farhat says he just needs a few holidays. His wife, Stephanie Allen, who cares for him, said it’s draining to see her husband, an industrial helicopter pilot and veteran Hollywood team member, curled up in front of the TV.

“It’s like keeping a hummingbird inside a box,” he said.

Mr. Farhat says his suffering has been prolonged by the poor support he received under California’s workers’ compensation system, which has led to years of lawsuits from injured workers.

Despite all this, Mr. Farhat continued the process from home.

Working from his clinic mattress, with a computer on a table above him, he completed all the specials for “Candy Cane Lane” on October 15, almost seven months after his injury.

“I presented the entire film,” he said.

And the burning Christmas tree was never included in it.

@Jack Begg contributed analysis.