‘Midnight Rider’ trial and controversy

A trial focusing on film set safety and criminal liability is scheduled to open Monday in a small town in Georgia, attracting intense interest from Hollywood.

“Midnight Rider” director Randall Miller’s guilty plea in connection with charges related to the death of a 27-year-old camera assistant marks what many believe is a first for the industry.

In a case that has become a rallying cry for movie set workers demanding safer conditions, Hollywood director Randall Miller pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter in the film-set death last year of an assistant camera operator killed in a train accident.

The Directors Guild of America said there is “still much work to be done” to improve safety on film sets in the wake of the accident that killed a 27-year-old camera assistant last year.

The parents of Sarah Jones, the 27-year-old camera assistant killed on the set of “Midnight Rider” earlier this year, have agreed to settle their lawsuit with the producers of the film.

Rocker Gregg Allman has been dropped from a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of Sarah Jones, a 27-year-old camera assistant killed on a film set earlier this year.

Legal troubles mounted for the producers of “Midnight Rider” this week as railroad company CSX Transportation sued the filmmakers, claiming that they illegally filmed on its tracks where a train collided with the crew earlier this year.

Jay Sedrish, an executive producer and unit production manager on the controversial movie “Midnight Rider,” has pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass in the death of a 27-year-old camera assistant.

The U.S.

Pasadena-based film producers of the “Midnight Rider” movie Randall Miller and his wife, Jody Savin, who have been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 27-year-old camera assistant, turned themselves over to authorities in rural Georgia on Sunday.

The parents of Sarah Jones, the 27-year-old second camera assistant killed during filming of “Midnight Rider,” have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Pasadena-based producers of the movie.

“Midnight Rider” filmmakers Randall Miller and his wife, Jody Savin, pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass in the death of a 27-year-old camera assistant.

Criminal charges brought against producers of the independent film “Midnight Rider,” which was shut down after a deadly train crash, could prompt the movie industry to take crew safety more seriously on risky location shoots, industry experts say.

A day after filing a lawsuit against the producers of “Midnight Rider,” the parents of 27-year-old camera assistant Sarah Jones said they hope the case will highlight the need for safer film sets nationwide.

“Midnight Rider” star William Hurt has pulled out of the Gregg Allman biopic, which suspended production in February after a train accident killed a camera assistant.

A petition to include Sarah Jones, the camera assistant killed on a film set in Georgia last week, in the Oscars “in memoriam” tribute has so far failed to sway the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Further clouding efforts to revive production of the movie “Midnight Rider,” Gregg Allman now says the movie’s producers don’t have the right to tell his story.

The union representing Hollywood crew members has expressed dismay over plans by the producers of “Midnight Rider” to resume production of the film in Los Angeles, a few months after a train accident in Georgia killed a camera assistant.

Production of the Gregg Allman biopic “Midnight Rider” has been suspended after the death of crew member Sarah Jones, 27, who was struck by a freight train while filming in Savannah, Ga., last week.