A Taiwanese worker died and two others were injured in Taipei yesterday when scaffolding collapsed on the set of US film director Martin Scorsese’s latest movie, officials said.
The three workers, all in their 50s, were rushed to a nearby hospital after the accident at Central Motion Picture Corp’s (CMPC) Chinese Culture and Movie Center about 10am, Taipei City’s Construction Management Office said.
Chen Yu-lung (陳玉龍) was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital, while the other two men sustained leg fractures and head injuries, the Taipei City Fire Department said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The three had been helping dismantle a Japanese-style building to make room for the movie set, the Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs said.
A spokesperson for Scorsese’s film crew expressed their “shock and sorrow” about the accident.
“Today there was an unfortunate accident at CMPC Studios in Taiwan, where the Martin Scorsese film, Silence, is in pre-production,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Deadline Hollywood Web site. “An existing structure on the CMPC backlot had been deemed unsafe by the production, and accordingly a third-party contractor was hired to reinforce and make it safe prior to any production-related work commencing in this building. Sadly, during this process, the ceiling collapsed, resulting in the death of one of the contractor’s employees and injuries to two others. 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.”
Construction Management Office section head Hung Te-hao (洪德豪) said the office has issued a halt-work order on the site, and that the film crew will be fined for not obtaining permission to build temporary facilities at the site.
It is not known if Scorsese was at the site at the time of the accident or when he will begin filming.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS