Effects worker sentenced for illegal explosives on movie set

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A special effects worker was sentenced to federal prison Tuesday for illegally possessing explosives while working on a movie starring John Travolta and Morgan Freeman.

A U.S. District Court judge ordered a 2 1/2 year prison sentence for Robert Christopher Bailey of Los Angeles, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Savannah.

Bailey had pleaded guilty in December 2019 to providing pyrotechnic effects for the movie “The Poison Rose” despite a prior felony conviction that kept him from having an explosives license.

According to court documents, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms questioned Bailey after receiving complaints from people on the Georgia movie set in 2018. One complaint said Travolta had been “hit with sparks and treated for a minor injury during a mishap with special effects,” according to a legal filing by prosecutors. No other details of the incident were given.

Bailey was not charged with injuring Travolta or anyone else on the film set.

The Associated Press