The Daily Wire was ordered to halt filming on “Pawn Shop,” a thriller centered on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer that has been reported to draw inspiration from the January killing of activist Renée Good by ICE.
During a special meeting called by the city commission of Livingston, Mont. on Saturday, a motion to suspend the production’s permit was passed after hearing concerns about the shoot’s disruption to local businesses and its failure to communicate street closures, fire engine bookings and other processes to the community.
At the end of the meeting, a commission chair member introduced “a motion to immediately temporarily suspend Bonfire Pawn Shop, LLC’s permit while seeking legal opinion from the city attorney in a timely manner to amend, suspend or revoke the permit to come back to the commission, not after 5 p.m. on Oct. 5.”
“It is crystal clear that Livingston residents and businesses were not adequately informed in advance about the street closures and the disruptive nature of the filming activity that took place in the neighborhoods with the city-permitted filming,” a citizen said during the meeting, adding that clients of the town’s food resource center faced “intimidation” from “production company security personnel, that looked very much like paramilitary.”
Filming on “Pawn Shop” had been scheduled to conclude in Livingston on Oct. 10, per reports. The Daily Wire did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the permit suspension and prospective plans to continue production.
In a statement released Thursday, the Livingston Food Resource Center wrote that its attendance hit an eight-week low during filming.
“Since filming began across the street from our building, road closures and armed security guards have increased the barriers to accessing food. Our clients deserve to feel unequivocally safe accessing this essential resource, “the statement reads. “We were not notified of the plans to film. The LFRC learned how filming would affect our mission only when staff called the city to inquire, and there was no part of the permit process that allowed us to object or advocate for our clients, as the permit had already been issued and filming was due to start that week.”
“Pawn Shop” has also drawn local protests while shooting, with signage and social media posts calling out the story’s “pro-ICE” slant and the production’s failure to alert local residents of filming.
The Bulwark obtained a leaked script of the film, reporting that the film’s story kicks off when an ICE agent shoots and kills “a fat blue-hair” woman wearing a “covid mask,” after she fatally strikes another agent with her car. The ICE agent then takes shelter from a mob of activists in a local pawn shop.
