A Daily Wire film production that appears to reenact elements of Renee Good’s murder has been allowed to continue filming in a rural Montana town.
Production on Pawn Shop, the conservative media company’s upcoming film, was temporarily halted earlier this month after Livingston residents complained about inconvenient road closures, as well as the film’s portrayal of the Trump administration’s continued crackdown on immigration.
The project, which reportedly stars Danny Trejo and Harvey Keitel, follows an ICE agent’s dogged efforts to escape an angry mob seeking to free an immigrant he has detained, according to his newspaper.
At a Livingston City Commission meeting last week, several residents took to the lectern to air a series of grievances about the Pawn Shop’s presence in the city. Little or no public notice was given, they said. Street closures prevented access to a food pantry. The sound of gunshots was disturbing.
In a video of the shooting that surfaced online, an actress playing a protester can be seen driving a battered car toward a gaggle of law enforcement officers, running over one officer while another fires his gun. Then the car suddenly reverses.
This scene sparked backlash — and actual protesters — because of its resemblance to an ICE agent fatally shooting Renee Good in January.
“A production can hijack our downtown with goons and re-enact beatings while blocking the entrance to a beloved nonprofit,” neighborhood resident Bex Frucht said at the commission meeting. “They are faking a very controversial murder on our streets.”
The project’s filming permit was temporarily revoked amid the outcry, before being reinstated with new parameters around noise and any depiction of violence.
Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro blasted the city commission for deferring to what he described as “radical left-wing protesters.”
“When you put a movie together, it takes a lot – a lot in terms of production. You have to get the permit, which we did. You have to get everyone there, which we did. Every day costs you hundreds of thousands of dollars to film. All these people decided to show up and disrupt the shoot,” he said in a video posted to X on Wednesday.
Livingston City Commissioner Melissa Nootz did not immediately respond to an inquiry about Shapiro’s remarks.
Pawn Shop was originally scheduled to end production in Livingston on Oct. 10, according to city officials. It is unclear whether the temporary closure has pushed back this date.
Kaya Patten-Fusselman, executive director of the Livingston Food Resource Center, expressed support for the new conditions attached to the filming permit in a statement posted on social media Wednesday.
“This was an access issue. Blocking access to our one-way parking lot entrance did not work and is not working for some of our customers,” Patten-Fusselman said. “I will continue to work with the city so that the next nonprofit, business or neighbor is notified well before a street is closed for several weeks.”
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