Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros. / cloudytronics / Getty
Topics: Film and TV, Health, Mental Health, Warner Bros, US News
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Film and TV, Health, Mental Health, Warner Bros, US News
A Batgirl movie extra who claims she 'almost died' on set has spoken out on plans to sue Warner Brothers.
In 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery revealed the nearly complete Batgirl movie wouldn't be released.
It was initially going ahead as an HBO Max original release, later considered for theatrical distribution, but the $90 million budget film was ultimately shut down.
While many involved in the movie have swiftly moved on, one person who hasn't is Cristine Stanovici, an extra in Batgirl who claims she was 'almost killed by motorbike' while on set in Glasgow for the film.
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In an interview with The Sun, Stanovici recalled the alleged incident when a motorcycle 'with cameras on top of it that was filming [...] hit [her] from the right side'.
"I went flying in the air," she continues. "I started screaming to get the attention of the paramedics as I remembered seeing an ambulance on site in the previous days."
The extra claims she lay there for 'almost an hour' while she was checked over by medics and 'stabilised'.
"Unfortunately, I didn’t lose my consciousness. The memory will forever traumatise me."
Stanovici says she broke 'a lot of bones' in the incident, including her femur, tibia plateau and pubic bone, as well as suffering 'a lot of non-displaced fractures in the pelvis, a broken thumb, and laceration to the head'.
The femur break required surgery, which lasted 'more than five hours,' Stanovici says.
"I had five blood transfusions and I almost died."
Stanovici now has a rod in her femur 'that goes from hip to knee' and a scar along the whole of her leg - the result of doctors needing to 'relieve the pressure' on 'severe swelling,' despite initially only planning to use two incisions, 'top and bottom'.
Stanovici resolves: "I am still in pain every single day, every single step. People might think it’s just a broken leg.
"No. It’s a tragedy, your body is wrecked and your mind follows. Many people, including me, who go through this think it would have been easier if they had died."
Workplace wellbeing regulator, Health and Safety Executive, received a report in relation to the alleged incident involving Stanovici.
A spokesperson from the regulator told the Sun: "We wish Cristina well in her continuing recovery.
"As the matters are in the hands of her lawyers, and are receiving attention from the film company involved, it isn’t appropriate for us to comment further."
Thompsons solicitors have now been instructed by Stanovici to sue Warner Bros, with the extra hoping for 'improved conditions' on movie sets, particularly in Glasgow which is 'chosen more and more' for filming - as well as compensation.
Stanovici resolved: "I went there to have some fun, to see how it is, what making a movie involves.
"And look what happened."
UNILAD has contacted Warner Brothers for comment.