What's Wallace Shawn up to these days?

Good for Dwayne Johnson. Like, I have 100% nothing against the Rock. I mean, I always kind of thought pro wrestling was dumb as it combined sports and bad acting, but he did an episode of Star Trek: Voyager once, so he's ok in my book.

Although the episode in question had Seven of Nine and the Rock in
some kind of space wrestling match; combining sports, bad acting and Star Trek. 
And it was itself pretty dumb, but who cares? Oh, and even did his eyebrow thing.

Uh...starting after his new movie
which comes out in a few days and
includes tons of guns. So after that.

I bring him up because the actor--yes, he's an actor and the second highest paid one in the world right now. Anyway, the actor has announced that in the wake of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins's death on the set of Rust, his production company will no longer use real firearms on set. Hutchins was killed two weeks ago when Alec Baldwin accidentally shot her and another crew member with what turned out to be a loaded weapon. And yes, before you ask, noted election loser Donald Trump has absolutely weighed in on that terrible accident saying:

Pictured: that coup he incited.

"In my opinion, he had something to do with it, but if nothing else, how do you take a gun, whether it's loaded or not loaded, how do you take a gun, point it at somebody that's not even in the movie and just point it at this person and pull the trigger, and now she's dead."

-Donald Trump, suddenly 

concerned with the consequences 

people's actions have on others

I mean, look at this nonsense.
Everything is added in post production
so why even bother with real guns?

Well, obviously Donald Trump is a piece of shit but like I was saying, good for Dwayne Johnson. I don't know anything about film production (but since when has not knowing anything stoped anyone from voicing an opinion?), but it seems insane to me that there is, in 2021, a need to use real guns on a set. And for that matter, what is real ammunition doing anywhere within a ten miles of a prop gun? Doesn't matter. If nothing else, maybe Hutchins's death will call attention to workplace safety in the film industry. 

Don't worry parents, nobody gets
laid in GI Joe Retaliation, just shot.

But why so many guns in the first place? Johnson's pledge wasn't "I promise to stop making movies with so many guns." Or even, "I promise to take a long hard look at the glorification of gun violence in films." Instead it was "maybe we won't use actual guns anymore." I'm not the first to point out that ours is a fucked up culture that's perfectly comfortable with violence in movies, but then when there's nudity or more than one instance of the word "fuck" everybody looses their minds. But why is that?

"Give us what we want or we'll
straight up murder you." 

-Rep. Madison Cawthorn

I'm not suggesting that movie violence necessarily leads to real life violence--ok, I actually don't know that, I'm not an expert--for all I know, maybe there is some connection. I'd personally chalk our appetite for movie violence up to the fact that we live in a violent world. Did you see the other day when Congressman Madison Cawthorn from North Carolina went on a rant where he said he'd "run over" all who oppose him? Which, in a world in which Republicans have tried to make running over protesters legal, is not an idle threat, it's part of their party platform. 

But the alarming rise of super-agro right-wing shit-heels aside, the market for violent movies did lead kind of indirectly lead to Halyna Hutchins's death. That is, if there's a hundred movies a year, and seventy of them involve real guns on the set, statistically, it's a matter or time before something like this happens. And admittedly I'm making up those numbers (again, not an expert, but who cares? This is the internet), but maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if filmmakers didn't rely so heavily on violence to tell a story?

Huh? No, I actually have no idea what they'd do instead. Reboot
My Dinner with Andre maybe? I don't know, I'm not a screenwriter.