In March 2023, the producers of Amazon’s holiday movie “Candy Cane Lane,” starring Eddie Murphy, were determined to set a 15-foot fir aflame for a scene, according to court papers filed in a recent lawsuit.
But the weather was not cooperating, the court documents say. Producers had already canceled the shoot on several occasions because of rain and winds.
Yet, on this day, production would press forward amid winds gusting up to 30 miles per hour, the court papers say.
One intense gust sent a tent on the set flying into Jon Farhat, a visual effects supervisor. In the lawsuit he filed last fall, Mr. Farhat said the tent speared him in the back and threw him into the air “as if he was caught in a tornado.” He landed on the ground, unconscious.
Cut to 15 months later, and Mr. Farhat, 66, is still primarily bedridden in his home, unable to sit, unable to stand for more than an hour. He broke five vertebrae and two ribs. An ambulance is required to transport him to medical appointments, he said. And his struggle to recover has been made all the more frustrating, he says, by what he describes as a jumble of workers’ compensation red tape that has left him dissatisfied with his doctors and his pain management plan.
In his lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles, in September, he accuses Amazon Studios, its production services company, a producer and others of negligence, asserting, among other things, that the tent was not secured properly. Lawyers for Amazon Studios and other defendants denied that they were negligent, liable or otherwise at fault for Mr. Farhat’s injuries.
But Mr. Farhat, undeterred, said in an interview that he felt it was important for him to now speak out about his calamity, especially after another incident on an Amazon set in April left several people injured.
“I’ve been playing it safe for a year and trying to play by the rules and not piss anyone off and not say anything,” he said. “It all feels untenable.”
There has been an increasing scrutiny of the adequacy of safety protocols on film and television sets as more attention has been drawn to high-profile incidents, such as the shooting death of the “Rust” cinematographer that ultimately led to criminal charges.
In the wake of that shooting in 2021, The Los Angeles Times analyzed data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and reported that roughly 250 serious accidents had occurred during film production since 1990.
On-set safety is one key issue for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees as the union representing some 170,000 behind-the-scenes crew members negotiates its contract with the studios and some streamers. Specifically, the union is seeking to increase fines when employers fail to provide mandatory crew rest periods or require crews to work excessively long hours, defined as more than 60 hours a week.
The union declined to comment on Mr. Farhat’s case or the incident near Atlanta.
“I’ve overheard some pretty negative things said about crew by producers,” said a veteran Hollywood grip, Melanie A. Ragone, describing her years of experience on a variety of film sets. “That’s what I hate. Why are we coming out and killing ourselves for you, risking our lives? Why is crew being treated like we are expendable?”
Amazon has had three serious incidents in the past few years, with the Atlanta-area accident being the most recent. It occurred on April 20 on the set of the movie “The Pickup,” which coincidentally also stars Mr. Murphy. A stunt went wrong and a two-vehicle crash was captured on film.
Tracking which major studio was in charge on a set where a serious accident occurred can be challenging, in part because some safety violations are filed against film production subcontractors. But the number of recent accidents on Amazon sets, while a concern, does not appear to be out of the ordinary, given the overall number of such accidents that occur each year.
In the Atlanta area crash, an armored truck and an S.U.V. collided and tumbled off the road. Eight people were sent to the hospital — two with what the authorities described as life-threatening injuries and a third with serious injuries.
One, Marvin Haven, spent several days in the intensive care unit for what family members said were injuries that included broken ribs, a punctured lung and a skull fracture requiring facial reconstructive surgery.
A second victim, Wayne Rowe, also sustained severe injuries including fractures to his vertebra, a broken wrist and a significant head laceration, his wife said on a fund-raising page for him. The accident is being reviewed by OSHA.
The third incident was in 2020, when a stuntwoman was injured when she hit her head on a fitting at the bottom of the tank she was working in during a rehearsal for “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” according to Amazon and WorkSafe, New Zealand’s government health and safety regulator.
The regulator was notified about the injury six days after it happened and a review later determined that “risk assessment, worker engagement, hazard identification, monitor and review structures were not as cohesive as they could have been,” WorkSafe said.
Amazon declined to offer new comment on the three accidents, but it has defended its safety record as a producer of films.
“The well-being of the entire crew and cast is our first priority,” Amazon said after the accident on Atlanta-area set. “We will continue to insist on the highest industry standards of safety while filming. All safety precautions were reviewed prior to and monitored during the shoot.”
OSHA cited four violations in connection with “Candy Cane Lane,” which included delayed reporting of a serious injury. It levied fines of $7,200 for the violations. The citations were filed against Big Indie Candy Inc., which Mr. Farhat’s lawsuit identifies as the production services company hired by Amazon to supervise the film. The company is appealing.
Though Amazon bankrolls productions and promotes them under the Amazon brand, the company often employs a production services company to manage day-to-day operations. That company in turn typically outsources insurance, payroll and equipment services to other third-party contractors. Though some film productions are structured this way, especially in the case of independent films or those shot overseas, experts said it is uncommon for domestically made films produced by legacy studios.
One effect of outsourcing so much of the filmmaking, experts say, is that Amazon reduces its direct legal liability.
Anatomy of an Accident
Before his injury, Mr. Farhat, a Hollywood veteran of 33 years, was an in-demand visual effects supervisor, overseeing the computer-generated graphics on more than 20 films, five of them with Mr. Murphy. (When Mr. Murphy creates his multiple characters in his films, like “Dr. Doolittle,” it’s most often Mr. Farhat who works closely with motion-capture cameras to allow the various versions of Mr. Murphy to interact with each other.) He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on “The Mask.”
Today, as he reflects on what may have led to what he views as carelessness on the set of “Candy Cane Lane,” he blames a production environment that he describes as disorganized.
Mr. Farhat said that Reginald Hudlin, the director, asked the film’s screenwriter to frequently rewrite the script on set as Mr. Hudlin was reshaping the film. Though originally drafted as a charming Christmas movie, Mr. Farhat said Mr. Hudlin turned it into what the director once described as an action-adventure film in “the spirit of ‘Avengers’ Endgame.’”
At one point, halfway through production, Mr. Hudlin gathered his crew of 100 on the Universal backlot to acknowledge that while he knew some were frustrated about the amount of rewrites occurring, the situation was unlikely to change, Mr. Farhat said.
Four other people who worked on the set agreed in interviews that the script constantly changed and that the production was at times badly organized. Two people recalled working for a month on overnight shoots in frigid conditions.
“We never knew what we were doing when we showed up,” Mr. Farhat said, “and when we did, it changed.”
Mr. Hudlin declined to comment. But others who worked on the film described the production challenges as typical for a big-budget movie with special effects. Douglas Merrifield, the film’s executive producer, who is a defendant in Mr. Farhat’s lawsuit, disputed Mr. Farhat’s characterization of the on-set environment.
“I really enjoyed the experience of working on this project, working with Reggie, this cast and Amazon,” he said.
Amazon described Mr. Hudlin in a statement as “an incredible partner” who “ran a professional set and delivered the film on time and on budget.”
“To suggest he did anything other than that is categorically false,” the statement said.
Mr. Farhat was hurt during a March 29, 2023 shoot that was handled by a second-unit crew after principal photography for the film had wrapped. Mr. Hudlin, as director, was not there that day as second-unit crews are typically tasked with additional filming that does not involve the main actors or other top brass.
In Mr. Farhat’s court papers, he says a tent designed to protect the camera equipment was improperly constructed and never secured to the ground. The suit says that around 1:45 p.m. the winds sent the tent hurtling toward Mr. Farhat.
“Watch out!” someone yelled, according to the court papers. (Mr. Farhat has also created a video animation offering a visual reconstruction of what occurred.)
Now, Mr. Farhat says he just wants some relief. His wife, Stephanie Allen, who cares for him, said it is hard to watch her husband, the commercial helicopter pilot, the veteran Hollywood crew member, shrivel in front of the TV.
“It’s like putting a hummingbird,” she said, “inside a box.”
Mr. Farhat says his suffering has been extended by what he characterizes as substandard care he received under California’s workers’ compensation system, which has drawn complaints from injured workers for years.
Through it all Mr. Farhat stayed on the job — from home.
Working from his hospital bed, with a computer mounted on a table above him, he finished all the special effects for “Candy Cane Lane” on Oct. 15, almost seven months after he was hurt.
“I delivered the whole movie,” he said.
And the burning Christmas tree never made it in.
@Jack Begg contributed research.
