The lawyer representing a widow of a film extra who died on the Troy film set last year said it was ironic that the film was being premiered locally this week in aid of animals while the widow of an extra who died on the set was still in the dark over whether compensation was going to be given to her and her children.

A charity premiere of the blockbuster UK-Malta co-production Troy, is being held in aid of the SPCA at the Eden Century Cinemas in St Julian's on Friday, the same day the film is being released in the US.

Edward Zammit Lewis, the lawyer representing Mrs Camilleri, said Latina Pictures Limited, with whom George Camilleri was contracted as an extra on behalf of Warner Brothers, had only recently appointed a lawyer to examine the report of the magisterial inquiry and had not yet decided whether to assume responsibility or not.

A magisterial inquiry into the death of Mr Camilleri, who died following an accident on the set of Troy on May 31 last year, concluded the man's death was linked to the injury sustained while filming.

The $180 million-budget Troy involved thousands of extras for crowd scenes.

Dr Zammit Lewis, who is also assisting another film extra who was injured on the set, said the inquiry made it quite clear that there were "unclear instructions" about what extras had to do, and these conflicting instructions had contributed to Mr Camilleri's injury and subsequent death.

Mr Camilleri was admitted to hospital suffering from trauma to the left ankle and underwent surgery on June 1. He was discharged on June 6, but had to use a crutch.

The inquiry showed that Mr Camilleri was injured in an accident at work on a film set, where he was a stuntman. He was re-admitted to hospital on June 15 suffering from chest pains and breathlessness. He died two days later.

The inquiry says that Mr Camilleri had no significant medical history and only took painkillers when admitted to hospital. He had taken steroids in the past.

The autopsy concluded that Mr Camilleri died of pulmonary thromboembolism, which led to heart failure.

"Pulmonary thromboembolism is not an uncommon complication following trauma, fracture of the lower leg, surgery to the lower limb and immobility," the report says.

Several witnesses interviewed by the magistrate said extras had to run to the front part and then "climb down or jump from ladders onto the sand".

One of the Maltese stuntmen said that because of the crowd, he felt it was more comfortable to jump. Others said they had already jumped when Mr Camilleri was injured.

Although stuntmen had been practising for a week, when Mr Camilleri was injured, "the scene was a little more aggressive than usual" and the producers wanted the scene "to be 500 per cent perfect".

The inquiry, however, concluded that Mr Camilleri had not followed the instructions given to him by Mr Eastwood.

Dr Zammit Lewis said although the inquiry contained a single phrase that Mr Camilleri had not followed the instructions given to him, other evidence showed that the instructions were not clear or precise.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.