The Daily Wire has fast-tracked a new project with F6 and Deadpool actress Gina Carano, a Western titled “Terror on the Prairie,” which began filming this week.
While the conservative media company originally planned for a thriller based on the novel “White Knuckle” to be its first partnership with Mandalorian actress, producer Dallas Sonnier (“Bone Tomahawk” and “Run Hide Fight”) said the looming threat of federal vaccine mandates required a shift in plans.
“With the precariousness of the current Hollywood landscape and the remarkable overreach by its ruling class, we made the tough, but prudent choice to ride further out into the wild west to make movies on our own terms,” he said, adding, “The Daily Wire has given Gina and our team all the support any producers could ask for. Now, we must go make them proud by producing something that is truly great,”
Instead, production on the contemporary thriller will shift to the first quarter of 2022, and Sonnier and his Bonfire Legend team are turning their attention to another Carano vehicle — “Terror on the Prairie.”
Directed by Michael Polish, best known for “Northfork” and “The Astronaut Farmer,” the film centers on a pioneer family living on the Great Plains of Montana who must fight for their lives against a gang of vicious outlaws. It co-stars veteran character actor Nick Searcy (“The Shape of Water” and “Justified”), as well as MMA fighter Cowboy Cerrone, comedian Tyler Fischer, Heath Freeman (“Skateland”), and Samaire Armstrong (“The O.C.,” “Dirty, Sexy Money”).
Polish said the opportunity to film a story based in the iconic West particularly attracted him to the project. “Returning to my home state of Montana to direct a western for Dallas and Amanda, a rare of breed of producers who I truly respect, had tremendous appeal,” he said.
The Daily Wire said “Terror on the Prairie” will release in the spring of 2022 and will be available for streaming on DailyWire.com exclusively to Daily Wire members. “The Hurt Locker” distributor Voltage Pictures will be taking on international sales.
A recent story in The Hollywood Reporter revealed just how fraught the question of vaccine mandates has become in the entertainment industry with many studios having to delay or halt productions and industry unions negotiating how much power studios have to require union members be vaccinated.
“Though Hollywood might appear unified when it comes to embracing such COVID-19 preventive measures as vaccines,” the outlet reported, “the reality is more divided.” Among other projects that have temporarily shut down due to the vaccine issue are NBCUniversal’s series “Gaslit” and Paramount’s “The Offer,” a film about the making of “The Godfather.”
Daily Wire co-CEO Jeremy Boreing has made it clear that his company will not abide by the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for companies with more than 100 employees, saying in September, “The Daily Wire does have more than 100 employees but we won’t be enforcing Joe Biden’s unconstitutional and tyrannical vaccine mandate. That’s it. We’ll use every tool at our disposal, including legal action, to resist.”