A weapons supervisor who was jailed for involuntary manslaughter over the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Alec Baldwin movie, Rust, has been freed.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was released on parole from the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants on Friday, after serving her 18-month sentence, NBC News, Sky’s US partner said, quoting New Mexico Corrections Department spokesperson, Brittany Roembach.

Gutierrez-Reed was released to return home to Bullhead City, Arizona, where she will be on parole for a year for the manslaughter case.

She was in charge of weapons during the production of the Western film in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in October 2021, when a prop gun held by star and co-producer Alec Baldwin went off during a rehearsal.

Cinematographer Hutchins died following the incident, while director Joel Souza was injured.

Gutierrez-Reed was acquitted of charges of tampering with evidence in the investigation, but will be on probation over a separate conviction for unlawfully carrying a gun into a Santa Fe bar where firearms are banned weeks before Rust began filming.

Involuntary manslaughter means causing someone’s death due to negligence, without intending to.

At her 10-day trial in New Mexico in March last year, prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of Rust and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.

The 18-month sentence she was given was the maximum available for the offence.

Baldwin, 67, was also charged with involuntary manslaughter, but the case was dramatically dismissed by the judge during his trial last July over mistakes made by police and prosecutors, including allegations of withholding ammunition evidence from the defence.

The actor had always denied the charge, maintaining he did not pull the gun’s trigger and that others on the set were responsible for safety checks on the weapon.

Rust was finished in Montana and released earlier this month, minus the scene they were working on when Hutchins was shot, Souza, speaking at November’s premiere in Poland, said.

Rust is billed as the story of a 13-year-old boy who, left to fend for himself and his younger brother following their parents’ deaths in 1880s Wyoming, goes on the run with his long-estranged grandfather after being sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.

Wes Anderson is a rarity in Hollywood, with an unswayed distinct aesthetic which has every big name in Hollywood pleading to be in his next project.

Fronted by Benicio del Toro, his new film The Phoenician Scheme sees the return of numerous previous collaborators including Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright and Scarlett Johansson, but also adds new faces to the Anderson universe.

It is set in the 1950s and follows a ruthless yet charismatic European business tycoon called Zsa-Zsa Korda who, in Anderson’s own words, “has very little obligation to honour the truth.”

Looking to solidify his own legacy, without much thought for his 10 children, the slaves he wants to use or the land he wants to exploit, Sza-Sza chases multiple deals so he can build his career-defining project, Korda Land and Sea Phoenician Infrastructure Scheme.

‘A motivation pill

The Phoenician Scheme was partly inspired by the life of Anderson’s father-in-law, whom he dedicated the film to, Lebanese businessman Fouad Malouf.

Del Toro tells Sky News it was a gift to play a truly unique character.

“It’s like taking a motivation pill,” he says.

“You’re motivated because it’s Wes Anderson, you’re motivated because of the script and the story and the character. It’s unpredictable, original. [There’s] one hell of an arc, and it’s full of contradictions.”

Always an actor in mind – well, mostly…

Michael Cera, who plays Bjorn, says he had a “sense of dread” joining the cast. His role was written with him in mind, something he still can’t believe is true.

“[Anderson] has got every actor at his disposal, you’d imagine,” he says.

With production pushed back due to an actors’ strike, Cera feared the project might “fall apart”.

“I was not really at ease until we were there,” he admits.

Every detail is meticulously planned in the Anderson film universe – from the art on the walls (original works from Renoir and Magritte in this case), to the intricate backstory of a character collecting fleas in a plastic bag as a child.

While most roles are written by the Fantastic Mr Fox filmmaker with certain actors in mind – the exception this time is Liesl, the daughter of the business tycoon.

The dream phone call

After months of an audition process, Mia Threapleton got the call to play the straight-talking nun who is beckoned by her father to inherit the family business after his sixth near-death experience.

The 24-year-old daughter of Kate Winslet got the news via a call from her agent while she was on the train – and was in such disbelief she told her to call them back.

“I didn’t believe them – and she laughed at me [and said] ‘of course I’m not lying to you, this is true’. And then I sat on the floor and I cried.”

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Del Toro believes it was Threapleton’s screen test where she stood out as an “inventive” actor who thought on her feet that got her the part, having fashioned part of a makeshift nun costume with a napkin from a lunch tray.

“I said, ‘is there anyone who got any hairpins?’ And I pinned it to my head.”

Ticking a Wes Anderson film off the bucket list is a goal for many actors. Threapelton says she still hasn’t come to terms with achieving it so early in her career.

The Phoenician Scheme is in cinemas now.

Eight people have been found guilty of crimes connected to the gunpoint robbery of Kim Kardashian at a Paris hotel.

The theft targeting the TV personality, socialite and businesswoman in 2016 was carried out by a group the media dubbed the “grandpa robbers” as most were close to or of retirement age.

A six-member jury, led by three judges, reached a verdict on Friday following a four-week trial at Paris’s Palais de Justice.

The court found the ringleader and seven others guilty over the raid at the Hotel de Pourtales. Their sentences ranged from prison terms to a fine, but with time already served in pretrial detention, none of those convicted will go to jail.

The group were accused of pulling off one of the most audacious heists against a celebrity in modern French history, in the early hours of 3 October 2016 during Paris Fashion Week.

Wearing ski masks and disguised as police, the thieves stormed Kardashian‘s luxury hotel apartment, bound the star with zip ties, and stole jewellery worth an estimated $6m (£4.4m), including a ring given to her by then husband Kanye West.

‘You caused harm’

Chief judge David De Pas said the defendants’ ages – with the oldest being 79 and some others in their 60s and 70s – weighed on the court’s decision not to impose harsher sentences, and the nine years between the robbery and the trial was also taken into account.

He also told them the reality TV star had been traumatised by the raid, adding: “You caused harm. You caused fear.”

Some arrived in court in orthopaedic shoes and one leaned on a cane. But prosecutors warned observers not to be fooled.

Read more: Everything you need to know about the Paris trial

Ringleader Aomar Ait Khedache, 69, who arrived at court walking with a stick, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment, with five of those suspended.

His DNA, which was found on the bands used to bind Kardashian, was a key breakthrough that helped crack open the case. Wiretaps captured him giving orders, recruiting accomplices and arranging to sell the diamonds in Belgium.

Three others who were accused of the most serious charges got seven years imprisonment, five of them suspended.

‘Most terrifying experience of my life’

After the ruling, 44-year-old Kardashian, who was not present for the verdict, issued a statement, saying: “I am deeply grateful to the French authorities for pursuing justice in this case.

“The crime was the most terrifying experience of my life, leaving a lasting impact on me and my family.

“While I’ll never forget what happened, I believe in the power of growth and accountability and pray for healing for all. I remain committed to advocating for justice, and promoting a fair legal system.”

The court in the French capital found a ninth person guilty of illegal weapons charges, while a tenth person was cleared.

Kardashian ‘thought she would be raped and killed’

Five of the defendants, who were all aged between 60 and 72 at the time of the incident, faced armed robbery and kidnapping charges.

The remaining five defendants were charged with complicity in the heist or the unauthorised possession of a weapon.

During the robbery, Kardashian, who previously told the court she thought she would be raped and killed, was bound with zip-ties and left in the bathtub.

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She described the robbery as “terrifying” and said while she felt forgiveness, that in no way altered “the emotion and the feelings and the trauma,” adding “my life is forever changed”.

Two members of the group – Khedache, known as “Old Omar”, and Yunice Abbas – who wrote a book called I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian, admitted some part in the robbery, while the remaining eight denied the charges.

Prosecutors had requested sentences of up to 10 years.

Kardashian earlier this week completed her six-year legal apprenticeship in California.

Most of the jewellery, which is understood to have been sold in Belgium, was never found.

A diamond-encrusted cross, dropped during the escape, was the only piece ever recovered.