Jake Gyllenhaal & 'The Covenant' Director Guy Ritchie Weigh In On Using Real Firearms in Films, Say 'The Whole Game Changed' After 'Rust'
justjared.comGuy Ritchie is opening up about his new movie, The Covenant, and revealed that they didn’t use real firearms for any scenes.
Speaking with Newsweek (via The Independent), the director spoke about how things changed in regards to how Hollywood handles firearms in movies since the tragic shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on Rust. Keep reading to find out more… Guy told the outlet that the “whole thing has changed now, the whole game has changed,” as he referenced the Rust accident. “We haven’t used a real weapon since [the Rust shooting].
So there were no real weapons. It’s the first shoot that we had, which I have to tell you, it’s a tremendous relief for all of us,” he said, adding that he “never liked real firearms.” “I had no idea why we carried on in the industry with real firearms,” Guy went on. “It was just one of those things that everyone did, and it’s a tremendous relief, as I’m sure it is for Jake as much as it is for me, that you don’t have that sword hanging over us any longer.” Jake Gyllenhaal then chimed in with his own thoughts, saying that having firearms on set is “more of a question for the producers, just because those are the choices that that they make, but we used Airsoft weaponry on this.” “It allowed for a creative freedom, particularly as we were moving in the way guys shoot, so everything was safe.” The Covenant follows US Army Sergeant John Kinley (Gyllenhaal) and Afghan interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim).
After an ambush, Ahmed goes to Herculean lengths to save Kinley’s life. When Kinley learns that Ahmed and his family were not given safe passage to America as promised, he must repay his debt by returning to the war zone to retrieve them before the Taliban hunts them down first.
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