The Montana set of a film championing immigration agents, tied to Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro, was flooded with hours of chanted insults against him after locals obtained the script.
Residents of Livingston obtained the 86-page script for the production, known by the working title "Pawn Shop," and began protesting soon after filming started Sept. 22, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported this week.
In a report Thursday, The Bulwark, which also obtained a draft of the script, said the Daily Wire production opens with a scene based on the January fatal shooting of protester Renée Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis.
Keegan Nashan, a Livingston political organizer and abortion-rights advocate, spent five hours on Sept. 23, the second day of filming, shouting "Ben Shapiro is a cuck" into a megaphone to the tune of "London Bridge Is Falling Down," according to the Chronicle.
"People initially thought the film was anti-ICE," Nashan told the Chronicle. "[The production has] every right to do with their money as they see fit, as I have every right to protest with my time as I see fit. It is clear this is a pro-ICE film."
Other locals honked car horns and tried small-scale disruptions of the shoot, according to The Bulwark.
"We want them to know: Don't come do this s--- in our town," one protester, who asked not to be named for fear of online retaliation, told The Bulwark.
Alicia Jongeward, who lives along the alley where the crew is filming, told the Chronicle she started asking around when cones blocked her street Sept. 22 and eventually received the script from a Yellowstone Film Ranch worker. The script has since circulated in overlapping neighborhood group chats, she said.
"It is very much going along with the shots they've been doing within 100 meters from my home," Jongeward said. "The opening scene of the script talks about this car squealing in ... A woman is killed. … I saw it happen."
That opening scene centers on a character the script calls "MELANIE (40), a fat blue-hair," The Bulwark reported. She slams her Subaru into an ICE van and then fatally hits an agent named "Juan" before his partner, "Mike," shoots her.
"She MASHES on the gas as she throws the car into reverse, accidentally SLAMMING Juan out of the way. He goes flying into the gutter, bleeding..." the script reads.
"The first shot takes the [sic] Melanie in the neck, below her covid mask. The second in the head, above her covid mask," it continues. "Blood SPLATTERS on her PASSENGER's (40s, female, overweight) forehead and matching covid mask."
In the real shooting on Jan. 7, ICE agent Jonathan Ross fired three shots as Renée Good moved her SUV forward and turned away from him, the Chronicle reported. Federal officials said at the time that Ross acted in self-defense, according to the Associated Press.
"I asked the [actor playing the] ICE agent if they were method actors and could really put themselves in the shoes of Jonathan Ross who shot Renee Good," Nashan said.
"An unarmed woman was shot blocks from her own home by masked unidentified men employed by the U.S. federal government," she added. "We haven't seen any accountability."
Carter Boehm, a Livingston film producer who helped scout the set, confirmed Shapiro's involvement to the Chronicle. Producer Dallas Sonnier, whose company filed for the city permit, did not respond to the paper.
"I now know the gist of it," Boehm said of the film's ICE theme. "I know Ben Shapiro is involved."
Livingston Police Chief Wayne Hard told the Chronicle the department has received noise complaints about both the protesters and the production.
"The city was not aware of any connections to ICE when the permit was approved," City Manager Grant Gager told the paper. "Certain members of the public have made us aware."
Renée Good's family sued the U.S. government and several immigration officials Thursday, alleging wrongful death and a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights, the AP reported. The defendants include Ross, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Family attorney Benjamin Berkman spoke about the lawsuits at a news conference in Minneapolis on Thursday, which LiveNOW from Fox carried live.
"What happened to us should never happen to any family," Becca Good, Renée Good's partner, said in a news release Thursday, according to the AP.
