Daily Wire shoot recreating ICE killing draws protests in Montana town
A film crew firing blank rounds and staging a car wreck on a quiet Montana high street has drawn nightly protests from residents.
The production is working under the title Pawn Shop, a project from Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire and Dallas Sonnier's Bonfire Legend, according to Deadline. It is filming in downtown Livingston until 10 October, municipal filming forms show, as reported by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
The anger centres on what the cameras are recreating. The opening scene appears to dramatise the fatal shooting of Renée Nicole Good by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota in January. Good, 37, a US citizen, was shot dead by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis.
Livingston locals allege the company used blank gunshots, pyrotechnics and the wreck without properly warning nearby homes and shops. Protesters have gathered at the barriers to shout details of Good's death. Some chanted abuse aimed at Shapiro.
One of those protesting is Brooklyn Wilde, who works in the industry as a producer and director. The set itself centres on a fake pawn shop, with ICE vehicles and uniformed extras moving through the block.
The disruption has hit a food pantry across the street. The Livingston Food Resource Center said it was not told the production planned to film in front of its building and learned of it only when staff called the city to ask. The centre serves one in eight Park County residents.
Staff said road closures and armed security guards posted since filming began have made access harder. Attendance fell to an eight-week low after the cameras arrived, the centre said.
Labour paperwork adds another thread. Deadline confirmed the production is not working under a contract with IATSE, the union that represents film crews, and holds a conditional start with SAG-AFTRA, the actors' union. That status lets signatory work proceed while paperwork is completed.
A call sheet seen by Deadline lists Danny Trejo, Harvey Keitel and Henry Thomas among the cast. The production team includes Carter Boehm, a producer of Rust.
What makes this stand out is the speed. A death in January is already being staged for cameras in October, and a small town's main street is holding both the set and the response.
