The Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company has been insuring Hollywood films for over 85 years. Every year, they select one film as the riskiest film of the year. For 2010, they have selected the movie “Salt”, which stars Angelina Jolie.
The movie “Salt” was directed by Phillip Noyce, and written by Kurt Wimmer. It stars Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It is an action movie that was rated PG-13, and it was released in the United States in July of 2010. The film was produced by Columbia Pictures.
Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, who is an agent of the CIA. The Russian President is about to visit the United States in order to attend the funeral of the recently deceased Vice President of the United States. Salt is accused of planning to assassinate the Russian President, and of being a Russian spy, which causes her to go on the run. As one might expect, this action movie includes chase scenes, and plenty of stunts.
The Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company helps production companies to manage unexpected risks that can occur while filming a movie. They also insure the safety of everyone who participates in the film, in a way that will still allow for the director’s artistic vision to be achieved.
They offer a variety of types of insurance policies to production companies. Cast Coverage is in case a situation occurs that causes a “declared artist” to be unavailable to be in the film, after all. It could be due to illness, injury, or death of that person. Cast Coverage will help pay for the cost that the production company would have as a result of the production being interrupted.
Props, Sets, and Wardrobe coverage, as you can guess, covers the cost of loss, damage, or destruction of things that are used as props, worn by actors, or appear as part of the set. In short, it covers everything that the camera would be filming. Extra Expense Coverage also helps to pay for sets, equipment, and even locations that were “lost”. Third Party Property Damage Coverage covers the legal liability for actual property in a location that filming took place in.
There are even policies that cover the film itself. Faulty Stock Coverage pays for the production company to reshoot scenes. Perhaps something was faulty with the film, itself. Or, the cameras, sound or lighting or other equipment didn’t work correctly. It also covers the cost of bad editing of negatives, and bad processing by a lab.
Why did “Salt” get named the riskiest movie of 2010? It is because Angelina Jolie performs her own stunts in the movie. This includes fight scenes, riding a motorcycle, jumping off a bridge, and handling a variety of weapons. The risk is considered to be higher when an actor or actress does their own stunts, instead of having a professional stunt person do the stunts in their place.
Image by Andrés Álvarez Iglesias on Flickr