Montana town briefly shuts down pro-ICE film after reported Renee Good portrayal backlash
A Montana city expressed backlash to a film’s reported dramatisation of Renee Good’s death (Getty Images)
The Daily Wire’s controversial pro-ICE film Pawn Shop has resumed filming in Montana after a small town temporarily suspended its permit amid backlash over the movie’s reported depiction of Renee Good’s killing and concerns about the production’s impact on local residents.
The feature, produced by Ben Shapiro’s conservative media company The Daily Wire, Mike Richards, Dallas Sonnier, Ari Novak and Amanda Presmyk, is being filmed in Livingston, Montana, and has become the centre of an increasingly heated dispute over politics, free speech and public safety.
The film reportedly takes inspiration from the January 2026 killing of Good, a queer mother of three who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis.
A leaked copy of the screenplay, obtained by The Bulwark and reviewed by Montana Free Press, reportedly contains a fictionalised version of the incident. The character, named Melanie, is described as “a fat blue-haired” person, and is involved in a confrontation with an ICE agent that culminates in her being shot.
What is Pawn Shop about?
The reported storyline places the shooting within a broader pro-immigration-enforcement narrative. The film follows an ICE agent who becomes caught up in a conflict involving protesters and alleged MS-13 members.
The screenplay also reportedly contains elements inspired by the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man whose deportation to El Salvador became a major political controversy.
The film has drawn particular criticism because of its reported fictionalisation of Good’s death, with opponents arguing that the movie reframes the killing of a real person to support a political message about immigration enforcement.
But the controversy in Livingston has not been limited to the film’s content.
Residents and local businesses have raised concerns about how the production has operated in the town, including street closures, simulated gunfire, explosions and a staged car crash. Some residents also complained about the presence of armed private security personnel hired by the production.
The Livingston Food Resource Center, a local food pantry, said the production had made it more difficult for people to access its services. The organisation said it had not been adequately notified about the filming and that road closures and security personnel had created additional barriers for people seeking food assistance.
Those concerns prompted Livingston officials to temporarily suspend the production’s permit on 3 October, which ended up being short-lived.
Following a nearly seven-hour public meeting on 5 October, Livingston’s City Commission voted unanimously to allow the production to continue. Producers agreed to additional conditions, including keeping the food pantry accessible, improving signage and notifications for affected residents and businesses, and limiting the activities of private security.
The decision was not a vote endorsing the film’s political message. City attorney Jon Hesse told commissioners that the issue before them was whether the production had complied with the conditions of its filming permit.
Producers, meanwhile, argued that stopping the production because of opposition to its subject matter would raise First Amendment concerns. They also said the production had faced threats and dangerous incidents involving protesters.
Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, subsequently accused Livingston officials of violating the production’s First Amendment rights. The company has defended the film as a story about an ICE agent facing opposition while attempting to arrest a criminal immigrant.
Filming resumed on 6 October and is scheduled to conclude on October 10.
Who stars in Pawn Shop?
The reported cast, according to a leaked call sheet obtained by Montana Free Press and reporting by Deadline, includes several well-known Hollywood actors, including Harvey Keitel, Danny Trejo and Henry Thomas.
Keitel is best known for films including Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and The Piano. Trejo has appeared in hundreds of films and television shows, with his roles in the Machete films and his appearance in Spy Kids becoming some of his most recognisable characters. Thomas became famous as a child actor after playing Elliott in Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Trejo’s involvement is particularly striking given his history of speaking about and supporting marginalised communities. In a 2019 interview with Fortune, he recalled protecting young people in prison, including gay couples who had married outside prison, and said he continued to hear from people he had helped after his release. He has also built a public reputation around community service and advocacy for people in need, including Latino communities and immigrants. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he joined a campaign providing Spanish-language resources to migrant farmworkers, and in 2025 he urged families affected by ICE raids to “keep up hope” and help their neighbours. Against that background, his reported role in Pawn Shop highlights a notable gap between the causes he has publicly supported and the political project represented by this particular film.
The reported casting has attracted additional attention because of the film’s overtly political premise. Thomas, in particular, played a character in E.T. whose family hides an undocumented extraterrestrial from government authorities — a detail that has been noted by some commentators given Pawn Shop’s focus on immigration enforcement.
The production is a collaboration between The Daily Wire and Bonfire Legend, following the companies’ previous partnership on Run Hide Fight: Infidels.
Pawn Shop is being filmed as a feature-length action thriller, with Livingston standing in for locations including a fictional Minneapolis pawn shop and Korean grocery store.
For now, the answer from Livingston is that Pawn Shop can continue, provided its producers follow the rules governing how they film in the community.
