Over the weekend, a huge crowd of angry leftists tried to stop our next movie from being made. Why? Because the film is about an ICE agent who comes under fire while arresting a criminal illegal immigrant.
In Livingston, Montana, a blue dot of a town in a bright-red state, we started production without any armed security. It’s a small, relatively crime-free town. But the protesters began to interrupt filming on day one, and over the course of the next two weeks, we went from zero armed guards to six.
In that time, protesters aimed vehicles at our people. One man drove a pickup through our barricade at roughly 30 mph toward our cast and crew, screaming, “You guys are fascists.” Another rolled a Jeep at two security managers and pinned them against a wall. A third swerved at a guard, came back, and grabbed at a security manager’s gear.
One protester walked onto a locked-down set with a bullhorn and shouted fake “action” and “cut” cues during a vehicle stunt, the exact commands that keep performers from getting hit by a car.
Crew members and security guards were followed to their rentals, confronted in restaurants, and told their tires would be slashed. One protester even impersonated a crew member on set. A local Facebook group posted that our producer should be shot in the head. Security photographed a man in black, wearing a balaclava and carrying a duffel bag, standing outside our set at night. One woman released a bag of airborne seed pods over the set, and our medic had to treat eighteen cast and crew for breathing problems, eye irritation, and allergic reactions.
But here’s where it gets crazier: after all this, the mob got the Livingston city commission to go after us, too.
Commissioner Jessica Wilcox’s “number one question” was whether Livingston “really want[s] to approve projects that require armed guards.” Commissioner James Willich said the production wasn’t beneficial for people’s “health, safety, wellbeing.” Commissioner Melissa Nootz noticed the cops on set seemed “serious.”
Yeah. They’re serious because people are threatening to shoot our producer.
Finally, Commissioner Cindy Daniels let the cat out of the bag: “This wasn’t a Hallmark film.” Residents complained about “simulated violence,” “hired guns,” and “triggering” scenes. So … a Hallmark romance keeps its permit, but a Daily Wire film about immigration enforcement loses it.
Producer Dallas Sonnier speaks to the city of Livingston, Montana
Last Saturday, with five and a half shooting days left, the city commission decided to suspend our permit. That’s a violation of the First Amendment. Viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple.
I know, because I’ve seen this logic dozens of times at universities where I was supposed to speak — the mob threatens violence, then the administration cancels the event. A classic heckler’s veto.
We didn’t break a law. We didn’t violate a permit condition. We didn’t endanger anyone. The city just decided it was easier to silence the filmmakers than to police the mob. We told them we’d be back to work the next day regardless — every lost day of filming costs us six figures. But on Tuesday night, after a seven-hour meeting where what seemed like a hundred people aired their fake grievances, the commission, realizing it was about to get sued into the ground, reinstated our permit.
There was one condition: we have to put up black fabric screens around any “violent activity” because of the potential “psychological impact” on the community.
That’s right: a feelings wall. Not even kidding.
Just imagine a conservative town shutting down a liberal movie about the evils of ICE. We’d hear about nothing but banned books and forbidden ideas for weeks on end. But for the cancellation of the Daily Wire, the entertainment media celebrated.
The Bulwark’s Will Sommer ran a piece titled, “A Small Montana Town Tells Ben Shapiro to F*** Off.” The AV Club called us an “ultra-conservative white nationalist media company.” (We make movies with black, Hispanic, and Korean heroes. Make it make sense.) The Daily Beast called it an “unhinged MAGA movie” and a “MAGA fever dream.” The New Republic labeled the movie “unbelievably offensive.”
They’re not even hiding the ball. These censorious jackasses just want to ban things they don’t like. It’s that simple.
They hate the Daily Wire and everything we stand for. But to their great dismay, we’re not going anywhere. Every time some squishy snowflake complains that our movie is “triggering,” we know we’re doing something right.
A mob of protesters tried to shut us down and failed? That’s another trophy on our mantel.
Our upcoming film will be completed. It will be released. And it will kick ass. It’s a movie nobody else would have the guts to make, and by the time we wrap this one, we’ll be starting on the next. That’s on top of five new shows at the Daily Wire, our non-stop midterm coverage, and our amazing editorial output every single day.
Keep watching, because we’re just getting started.
Your subscriptions keep this fight going, not just for the reporting and the shows, but because the Left desperately wants to shut us down. Free speech is nothing but a talking point to them, while it’s a day-to-day constitutional exercise for us.
Join us. The only reason they’re trying to stop us is because we’re winning.