Award-winning stunt person Judd Wild, famous for his work on ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’, was the stunt co-ordinator overseeing filming of the Bliss n Eso music video in Brisbane on Monday, during which stuntman and actor Johann Ofner was tragically killed.
Warren Ritchie, a well-known Australian armourer and owner of pyrotechnics company Fireworks Down Under, oversaw the use of the real and prop firearms that were used on set.
Neither have responded to media requests for comment.
According to Fairfax Media, police were notified before the shoot that guns would be used on set, but were told that no live ammunition would be used.
An industry insider told Fairfax, on condition of anonymity, that while blanks were used on set, they suspect that a piece of debris in one of the chambers of a double-barrel shotgun is what fatally injured the Gold Coast 28-year-old. The actor Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, was killed in a similar situation on the set of The Crow in 1993.
Apparently Ofner, a father of one, suffered a wound to the chest that was not consistent with a shotgun blast, and there was “very little blood surrounding him“. Although crew members performed CPR as soon as they realised what had happened, Ofner died almost immediately.
Police have not ruled out pressing criminal charges, and continue their investigation into the tragedy.
Source: SMH.
Image: Facebook.
