William Hurt has pulled out of his starring role in “Midnight Rider,” in which he was set to play musician Gregg Allman.
Production on “Midnight Rider” was halted after second camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed in a Feb. 20 train accident on a railway bridge in Georgia. Hurt had come on board the project in early January. He was on the bridge where the crew was filming a dream sequence involving a hospital bed on the tracks.
Jones was killed and seven others were injured when a train unexpectedly came down the tracks as the crew was at the bridge shooting the sequence, shot in a rural area near Jesup, Ga. Recent reports that Director Randall Miller and his production company Unclaimed Freight were looking to re-start pre-production in Los Angeles have led to creation of a Facebook page called “I REFUSE to work on Midnight Rider! For Sarah!!!”
Wayne County Sheriff John Carter said last week that his office will not pursue their own criminal charges stemming from the accident. Carter said his office planned to lay out the case to the district attorney in Georgia’s Brunswick Judicial Circuit this week.
Among the key questions is whether any type of criminal charges will be filed, such as trespassing or negligence. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board also are conducting investigations into the incident, as are attorneys representing Jones’ family with the possibility of filing a civil complaint.
Hurt had been set to star as the present-day version of Gregg Allman. Tyson Ritter, the lead singer/songwriter of the All American Rejects, was cast as the young Gregg Allman, along with Wyatt Russell as his brother Duane Allman.
