Worker killed on Taiwan set of Scorsese film

Maria Puente | USA TODAY

A worker was killed on Thursday at a Taiwanese film lot where Martin Scorsese was preparing to shoot his new movie, Silence starring Liam Neeson, according to a publicist for the famed director.

Leslee Dart, spokeswoman for Scorsese, called it "an unfortunate accident " at the Chinese Culture and Movie Center studio in Taipei, where the film, a historical drama about the Jesuits in 17th-century Japan, is in pre-production.

An existing structure on the CMPC backlot had been deemed unsafe by the production team, so a contractor was hired to reinforce and make the building safe, Dart said in a statement.

"Sadly, during this process, the ceiling collapsed, resulting in the death of one of the contractor's employees and injuries to two others," Dart said.

"Everyone is in shock and sorrow and expresses their deepest concern and sympathy to the families of the individual who died and those who were injured."

Taiwan's Central News Agency said Chen Yu-lung was killed and two other men were injured when scaffolding around a building being torn down suddenly collapsed. All three men were Taiwanese contractors hired by the film's producers.

The Taiwanese studio issued a statement saying the contracting film crew bore responsibility for health and safety in the accident, according to the Associated Press.

Silence is based on a 1966 novel by Japanese author Shusaku Endo, about two Jesuit priests who traveled to Japan four centuries ago to spread Catholicism to an isolated country where it had been banned by the ruling shoguns.

Besides Neeson, the cast includes Andrew Garfield of the Amazing Spider-Man and Adam Driver.

The tragedy illustrated the potential dangers on movie, TV and even stage sets, including the most recent, in February 2014: A young camera assistant, Sarah Jones, was killed by a train while shooting a scene on a railroad bridge for a Gregg Allman bio-pic, Midnight Rider, now suspended.

But there have been scores of deaths over the years from accidents on entertainment productions, including these:

Actor Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed by a helicopter in 1983 on Twilight Zone. Brandon Lee was accidentally shot by real bullet in a prop gun on The Crow in 1993. Set dresser David Ritchie was crushed to death by frozen debris on the set of Jumper in 2008. Second-unit director John Jordan refused to wear a harness and fell to his death after being sucked out of a plane while shooting Catch-22 in 1969. And acrobat Sarah Guillot-Guyard plunged 100 feet to the floor after her suspension wire broke during a Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas in 2013.