Key Takeaways
- Livingston officials temporarily suspended the filming permit for Pawn Shop, a Daily Wire movie starring Danny Trejo, after residents reported road closures, gunfire, pyrotechnics, and other disruptions.
- Locals also objected to an apparent dramatization of Renée Good’s fatal shooting by an ICE agent, while a nearby food bank said armed security and blocked roads made its services harder to access.
- The city attorney will review whether to amend, extend or revoke the permit for the Harvey Keitel and Henry Thomas co-starring production, which reportedly lacks an IATSE contract and operates under a SAG-AFTRA “conditional start.”
Production on Danny Trejo’s upcoming Daily Wire movie has come to a halt in Montana after residents pushed back over everything from road closures and access to a local food bank to gunfire, pyrotechnics, and an apparent dramatization of a fatal ICE shooting.
According to Deadline, the Livingston City Commission voted unanimously to temporarily suspend the filming permit for Pawn Shop, the latest collaboration between Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire and producer Dallas Sonnier’s Bonfire Legend. The decision followed mounting complaints from residents and local businesses about disruptions since filming began.
Commissioners ordered the permit suspended while the city attorney reviews whether it should be amended, suspended longer or revoked altogether, with the matter scheduled to return to the commission by Oct. 5.
The controversy extends beyond ordinary complaints about a movie crew taking over downtown. Residents have protested the production’s alleged use of blank gunfire, pyrotechnics and a staged car crash without sufficient advance warning.
The movie’s opening sequence has generated another backlash: It appears to recreate the January fatal shooting of Renée Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Police Chief Wayne Hard said his department has received complaints “on a daily basis” since production started, although no violence has been reported.
The Livingston Food Resource Center also says filming across the street from its facility has created problems for people seeking assistance.
“Since filming began across the street from our building, road closures and armed security guards have increased the barriers to accessing food,” the organization said in a statement. “Our clients deserve to feel unequivocally safe accessing this essential resource.”
The Livingston Fire Department was reportedly on standby for stunts involving pyrotechnics, but some residents said they weren't adequately warned about sequences unfolding near their homes.
Trejo, Harvey Keitel and E.T. star Henry Thomas are listed on a production call sheet obtained by Deadline. According to the film’s synopsis, Pawn Shop follows a federal agent stranded after his partner is seriously injured amid unrest in Minneapolis. He takes refuge inside a pawn shop with “a traditional Hispanic father and his progressive college-age son,” leaving the three men to navigate their political differences while trying to survive.
Trejo’s involvement has also drawn criticism online given his status as a longtime Chicano cultural figure and the movie’s ICE-centered storyline.
And this isn't the first Bonfire Legend/Daily Wire production to run into trouble before reaching audiences. Their previous collaboration, Run Hide Fight: Infidels, starred Jonathan Majors as a former Delta Force officer battling Islamist terrorists who take over a pro-Palestinian encampment on a liberal college campus.
IATSE picketed that production amid alleged labor and safety concerns. Majors and co-star JC Kilcoyne also accidentally fell approximately six feet through an unsecured window, leaving Kilcoyne needing stitches.
Sonnier responded to the labor dispute by declaring, “We don’t negotiate with communists.”
Some notable connections show up this time around. Pawn Shop is also reportedly filming without an IATSE contract, while operating under a “conditional start” with SAG-AFTRA. Rust producer Carter Boehm is among the production team.
