Conservative media mogul Ben Shapiro’s latest foray into filmmaking has famous actors like Harvey Keitel and Danny Trejo. But just weeks after production began, the pro-ICE film tentatively titled Pawnbroker faces a serious obstacle.
Saturday, two days later reported on PawnbrokerDuring the reenactment of ICE’s murder of Renée Good, city commissioners in Livingston, Montana, voted to “immediately and temporarily suspend” the Daily Wire’s filming permit.
“I am absolutely furious at the malfeasance or lack of competence of the people putting on a film production event in our city,” Commissioner and Vice President James Willich said in Saturday meeting.
While the commission will meet again Monday evening to discuss the revoked permit, things aren’t looking good for old Ben Shapiro. For one thing, no one from the film showed up at Saturday’s hearing to defend the production.
On the other hand, commissioners pledged at the weekend meeting not only to halt the production, but to reform the city’s lax film permitting rules, which appear to have allowed the Daily Wire film crew to take over several streets with little oversight, in exchange for just $5,000 — a pittance compared to what Livingston City Manager Grant Gager described as a $1.5 budget. million dollars for the film.
Shapiro will no doubt cite this deep red Montana town as an example of wokeness unleashed. But after watching four hours of Saturday’s hearing, I can say with certainty that it paints a different picture. Because even if PawnbrokerThe film’s controversial subject matter attracted protesters, but few at the hearing cited the film’s content as a reason to revoke the permit.
Instead, commissioners, business owners and members of the public all complained that Shapiro’s Hollywood dreams had wreaked havoc on the town’s population of about 9,000, with a list of misdeeds including
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