The Daily Wire announced Monday that it has acquired the North American distribution rights to the feature film Run Hide Fight, a move that comes as the online news and commentary site enters the entertainment space dominated by Hollywood and streaming platforms such as Netflix.
The action thriller will premiere during a Daily Wire Backstage special hosted by Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro, Co-CEO Jeremy Boreing and special guests on Thursday, January 14. After the premiere, Daily Wire members can watch the movie at DailyWire.com.
The news follows a recent announcement by Shapiro in which he outlined why the Nashville-based conservative media company is making a foray into producing entertainment content, including movies and TV shows. Conservatives, Shapiro explained, must begin producing their own content to combat Hollywood’s attempts to “undermine the very values that have made this country exceptional.”
Run Hide Fight immerses viewers into a day in the life of Zoe Hull (played by Isabel May), a 17-year-old high school senior who is working through a complex relationship with her father (Thomas Jane) while coping with the recent loss of her mother to cancer. Zoe is just weeks shy of graduating when a quartet of nihilistic classmates siege her high school’s cafeteria to perpetrate a mass shooting. She manages to escape the building and help others flee, too, but then realizes she’s uniquely prepared to take on the shooters and save lives.
“Run Hide Fight is ultimately a movie about courage in the face of evil,” said Daily Wire’s Boreing. “The Columbine massacre was a transformative moment for our country, and for me politically. It was the first time I saw how the media can form a narrative, in complete contravention of the facts, and have that narrative become the dominant perspective on a consequential event.”
“I was attracted to this film because Kyle Rankin had the courage to bring to light many of the realities of that terrible event for the first time,” Boreing added. “This is a gut-wrenching film that refuses to offer easy talking points, which is why liberal Hollywood executives have refused to distribute it.”
Run Hide Fight was produced by Dallas filmmakers Dallas Sonnier and Amanda Presmyk, who said The Daily Wire’s values and loyal membership base made it a natural fit as the exclusive North American distributor for the movie.
“The Daily Wire’s policy of not publishing the names of mass shooters made it an ideal partner,” said Sonnier, whose previous films include the critically-acclaimed Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Dragged Across Concrete. “If this film has a political viewpoint, it’s that we should not make terrorists famous; it’s the heroes whose names we should remember.”
Sonnier added that Run Hide Fight’s cast and crew conducted extensive research and worked closely with security experts to provide an accurate depiction of active-shooting and the kinds of dire choices that victims and their families face. “We spent years carefully developing this movie in consultation with law enforcement veterans and shooting victims to immerse people into a realistic portrayal of what it’s like to experience one of these tragedies,” he said.
While not an overtly political film, Boreing stated that Run Hide Fight is a preview of the kind of content The Daily Wire expects to offer its members as it expands its entertainment offerings.
“Unlike Hollywood, The Daily Wire will never bow to the whims of woke SJWs and the Chinese Communist Party censors,” Boreing said. “’Run Hide Fight’ is a preview of our future plans and the type of movies and series we plan to offer in the not-too-distant future. Like this film, much of our entertainment content won’t be political. Our mission is simple: We will make great entertainment that all Americans, regardless of their political views, can enjoy. Americans who are fed-up with the cultural edicts of our country’s self-appointed moral overlords in Hollywood and legacy media should stay tuned.”
The trailer opens up with Hull, who is struggling through the loss of her mother to cancer, downing a deer with a shot from a hunting rifle. Later, at school, a van crashes into the cafeteria and four heavily-armed teenagers leap out. Snippets show Hull evading the gunman as she tries to escape, but once outside and nearly clear of danger, she decides to return to the school to save as many trapped students as she can. Watch the trailer below: