BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – A federal judge has dismissed a case involving an extra who sued Will Smith’s studio after he was injured on set for a movie filmed in Louisiana.
James Walker Jr. worked as a background actor in Will Smith’s “Emancipation,” which takes place in Louisiana. While working on set, Walker was injured after getting hit in the face by a cable-suspended camera.
Walker claims that the production defendants, including Apple Studios Louisiana, director Antoine Fuqua and the crew, “collectively oversaw the setup, filming, and ultimately the production of the movie.”
He also claims Fuqua controlled “the sequence of activities on the movie set requiring the suspended camera system be utilized in an unsafe and dangerous manner.”
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Walker’s attorneys accuse the production staff were negligent for:
- Failing to train and instruct their employees.
- Choosing to operate the camera in an unsafe manner despite knowing of the certainty of injury to cast members.