It seems less and less likely with each passing day that the Gregg Allman biopic ‘Midnight Rider’ will ever make it to movie theaters. It has been announced that the film's star, William Hurt, has dropped out of the project.

Hurt was set to portray the Allman Brothers Band singer. His departure follows the tragic February on-set train accident that took the life of camera assistant Sarah Jones and injured seven others. Hurt himself was very nearly harmed in the incident.

The news doesn’t come as a total surprise following the release of an email that the actor wrote to a friend expressing his dismay with the production over the accident. As Hurt related in a message that was picked up by the L.A. Times, he took specific issue with the stunt that led to the death of Jones. “I said, 'Sixty seconds is not enough time to get us off this bridge.' There was a communal pause. No one backed me up. Then, we...just went ahead. I took off my shoes, got on the heavy, metal hospital bed and began preparing." Adding, “We didn't have sixty seconds. We had less than thirty."

While there have been reports that production on the film is set to begin again soon, with a boycott staged by some Hollywood crew workers, and now the loss of one of its lead actors, the prospects of seeing Allman’s life presented on the big screen in this form seem increasingly grim.

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