Alec Baldwin To Make a Career Comeback In 'Hollywood Heist'

Actor Alec Baldwin is scheduled to resume filming "Rust" in Montana any day now.

The Western film paused production after a gun that the "30 Rock" was holding misfired, fatally wounding cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.

Now that the charges against Baldwin have formally been dropped, the actor is moving on to other projects, including a movie titled "Hollywood Heist."

On Thursday, special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis officially dropped criminal charges against Alec Baldwin without prejudice, meaning that they can still file charges against him again at any time.

Baldwin had been facing two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of "Rust" in October 2021. The date for the preliminary trial was scheduled for May 3 and the two special prosecutors, who were only hired last month, stated they needed more time to investigate the shooting before they could prosecute.

On Friday, April 21, the prosecutors officially filed to drop the charges against the actor. Less than an hour later, Deadline announced that the Emmy-award-winning actor was set to star in a new film called "Hollywood Heist," which marks the feature directorial debut of Mike Hatton.

The comedy crime caper will also star a recognizable cast of Nick Cannon, Mickey Rourke, Paul Sloan, Til Schweiger, and Tara Reid. The film was shot in both Las Vegas and Majorca, Spain. Principal photography in Los Angeles was finished last week. The synopsis for the film reads:

"Hollywood Heist follows a Hollywood power agent (Cannon) trying to land an actor (Baldwin) by telling the story of his client, a movie producer (Hatton), along with a washed-up movie star pal (Sloan), as they race against time to save their latest production. This comes after the project’s bank account is wiped clean by a thief, leading to an onslaught of negotiations with famous actors, drug lords and death."

Although the story is set in a "meta" version of Hollywood, it is inspired by true events. It's been reported that Baldwin, Rourke, and Reid will all be playing fictionalized versions of themselves. The film will also feature a fictional version of producer, Asko Akopyan, who will be played by Arman Nshanian.

Mike Hatton wrote the script alongside Paul Sloan and will be producing the film under his Ton of Hats production company. Akopyan will also be producing for Oscar Gold Productions.

Nick Cannon will be executive producing through his Ncredible Entertainment brand. Kimberly Hines will also serve as executive producer on the film, which has no scheduled release date.

Another Alec Baldwin film, "Supercell," was quietly released last month. It was one of the last projects filmed by the late "Volcano" actress Anne Heche. The "Twister" inspired disaster film was released on the March 17 – 19 weekend in several independent cinemas and video-on-demand.

The Hollywood Reporter noted that Saban Films had acquired the domestic rights to the film before Halyna Hutchins passed away in October 2021. Baldwin did no press for the film and Comscore data revealed that “Supercell” only opened in twenty theaters nationwide.

Further analysis revealed that the disaster film earned $6,840 between the March 17 – 19 weekend. The film jumped to the number seven spot on the iTunes movie rental chart but many fans were unaware of its release.

In June 2021, Baldwin spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the effects they were able to pull off with a limited budget. “I haven’t been running across a field trying to chase the sun for a shot in quite a while,” he said at the time.

“They don’t have money for a lot of effects, this is not a Spielberg production. They have to find ways to simulate it and render it at a low cost, and they did that,” he continued. “We’d say ‘action’ and get out of this van and oh my god, they were blowing this stuff on us like you couldn’t believe it.”

The film is the feature directorial debut of Herbert James Winterstern, who co-wrote the script as well. The movie tells the story of a teenager named William, played by Daniel Diemer, who runs away from home after becoming enamored by the same storms that claimed the life of his father, a famous storm chaser.