A crew member on the set of Indiana Jones 5 has been found dead while the production was filming in Morocco. News broke regarding the death of grip Nic Cupac this week. The information was confirmed by the Walt Disney Studios, who has held the distribution and marketing rights on the franchise films since Paramount sold them to the company back in 2013, on Thursday of this week. His death did not occur on set.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the production confirmed that Nic Cupac had died in Morocco, also noting that Cupac was a part of the camera crew and worked on the second unit, having joined the production fairly recently. He was found dead in his hotel room while the movie was filming in the city of Fes. The production rep shared a statement (via the New York Post):
Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Nic Cupac, an incredibly talented colleague and member of the film community who will be greatly missed. His sudden passing was not production related. Nic was a grip on 2nd unit.
The Sun first reported the news, with Disney confirming later, though the former outlet mentions natural causes and the latter says no cause of death has yet been determined. We do know Nic Cupac was only 54 at the time of his death.
Nic Cucac had plenty of years of experience under his belt, having also worked on productions as varied as Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and In Bruges, along with a slew of Disney productions including Solo: A Star Wars Story and Cruella. His work on Indiana Jones 5 was recent, though the movie has been off the ground and moving forward for a while. Reports indicate he had been working on a particularly complex-sounding stunt involving a rickshaw that needed help from around 100 crew members.
The still untitled Indiana Jones 5 has been an extremely lengthy production. Back in June, principal photography got started after a year of delays due to Covid-19. Then, at one point Harrison Ford’s work on the film was halted for a period of three months where he recovered from an injury that did happen on set. He only returned to filming two weeks ago, though director James Mangold had said the movie was still being worked on in the interim.
Other actress on the film Phoebe Waller-Bridge, confirmed she left Sicily for a new shooting location only recently. The movie isn’t expected to come out until 2023, so there’s plenty of time to still wrap on the movie and get through the editing process. Though it’s worth noting that release date is a delay from Disney and only a recent development.
I’d imagine the news impacts a lot of people who worked with Nic Cupac over the years and knew him well. Our thoughts go out to the Indiana Jones 5 team and those who loved and cared about Mr. Cupac.