The stars are aligning against artificial intelligence.
It’s hard to blame them. One look at Tilly Norwood, the A.I. actress, as pretty as she is, forever young, and it’s clear why actors would be threatened by her digital existence.
That explains why so many are raging against A.I. in interview after interview. Except there’s a flaw in their arguments, one few stars are willing to admit. Nor will major studios, for that matter.
Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson excoriated the rise of A.I. during an appearance on the soon-to-be-extinct “Late Show” on CBS. 
She shared her “<a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/news/emma-thompson-ai-annoying-irritation-1236563757/">intense irritation</a>” with the technological movement.
<blockquote>“… when I’ve written something, I will put it into a Word document. And recently, the Word document is constantly saying, ‘Would you like me to rewrite that for you?’ And so I end up just saying, ’I don’t need you to rewrite what I’ve just written, will you f*** off?! Just f*** off!”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_994579" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-994579" class="size-large wp-image-994579" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Colbert-ET-1024x517.jpg" alt="Screenshot: Late Show with Stephen Colbert/YouTube.com" width="1024" height="517" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Colbert-ET-1024x517.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Colbert-ET-300x151.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Colbert-ET-768x388.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Colbert-ET.jpg 1157w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Screenshot: Late Show with Stephen Colbert/YouTube.com</div>
“Parks &amp; Recreation” alum Nick Offerman sang from a <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/the-view-nick-offerman-slams-ai/">similar hymnal</a> during a recent “View” appearance.
<blockquote>“In this day and age where companies are taking over the curation of our lives, like, they want AI to think for us…I love my clumsy, stupid farmer voice, I would never want a robot to write my song for me, because my song is stupid in a wonderful, delicious way that’s all about my voice! I don’t want to give over my agency.”</blockquote>
One of Offerman’s compositions <a href="https://www.billboard.com/culture/politics/nick-offerman-slams-donald-trump-pro-kamala-song-parody-1235762250/">mocked President Donald Trump</a> during the 2024 campaign.
<blockquote>“I’m proud to be a Kamala man, who’s quit the GOP/ I just can’t stick with the man convicted of 34 felonies.”</blockquote>
It’s hard to imagine A.I. could belt out a tune quite that insightful.
Some artists are doing more than talking about artificial intelligence. Author George R.R. Martin is <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/george-rr-martin-openai-court-legal-1236413461/">suing OpenAI</a> for copyright infringement. And he may have plenty of company, especially since said suit, albeit slowly, is moving forward.
The collective fear is palpable, and not without reason. If a savvy 21-year-old can use A.I. to create a visually stunning film at the same price point as a studio’s catering budget, Hollywood could be on borrowed time.
There’s another reason for the industry to give A.I. a long, hard look. The computer revolution excels at absorbing content and spitting out new material based on that data. How different is it from Hollywood in 2025?
Yes, too many film and TV scripts feel like A.I. helped write them from start to finish. Hackneyed plots. Predictable story arcs. Canned dialogue lacking in wit and imagination. Here’s betting A.I. could create an annoying GirlBoss character as well as any woke scribe.
Or almost as well.
That’s part of the problem. What about the content itself? Hollywood recycling has reached a fever pitch, and it shows no signs of stopping.
Recent examples include a deal to turn the ‘80s cop show “Miami Vice” into a feature film, one potentially starring Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler. The original saga captured the Reagan era to a “T,” from its pastel-flavored suits to its synth-heavy soundtrack.
Except we’ve already seen a “Miami Vice” movie directed by a key player behind the original series, auteur Michael Mann. That 2006 film featuring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell made only a modest dent at the box office. Now, it’s time to try again? Why not feed the show’s original episodes into Grok and see what it churns out?
<div id="attachment_994551" style="width: 943px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-994551" class="size-large wp-image-994551" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2242151643-933x576.jpg" alt="ELIZABETH, NJ - OCTOBER 21: Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone is seen filming on the set of &quot;I Play Rocky&quot; on October 21, 2025 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)" width="933" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2242151643-933x576.jpg 933w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2242151643-300x185.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2242151643-768x474.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2242151643.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 933px) 100vw, 933px" />Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images</div>
Another upcoming project essentially reboots Sylvester Stallone’s early years. “I Play Rocky” recalls the actor’s battle to play the main character in his original, in-demand screenplay. Studio executives had little appetite for Stallone, then an unknown actor. They craved an established star to play the blue-collar boxer who dreams of greatness.
The film cast young actors who resemble both Stallone and “Rocky” favorite Carl Weathers, respectively, although A.I. could have de-aged both for a fraction of the price.
The problem isn’t relegated to the big screen. A new “Karate Kid” musical retells that now tired tale, one that inspired three sequels, a Jackie Chan-led reboot, a spinoff TV series (“Cobra Kai”), and last summer’s tepid “Karate Kid: Legends.”
Here’s betting A.I. could write a few wisecracks about Hollywood’s recycling obsession. Actually, here’s one from Grok:
<blockquote>Hollywood is so obsessed with sequels, prequels, and remakes that the next big blockbuster will be Spider-Man: The Origin of the Origin Story.</blockquote>
Hardly a howler, but it’s not as awful as your average Stephen Colbert monologue.
Now, imagine if today’s Hollywood threw off the shackles of its IP obsession and reclaimed the spirit of, say, ‘70s-era filmmaking. That decade delivered rich, complicated stories that brought out the best in Hollywood at all levels. Think “Three Days of the Condor,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Network,” “Taxi Driver,” and “Chinatown.” Those are just a few of the iconic films that defined the ‘70s.
<div id="attachment_994583" style="width: 741px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-994583" class="size-large wp-image-994583" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-133286967-731x576.jpg" alt="Penny Allen (3rd from left) and others are held up by Al Pacino in a scene from the film 'Dog Day Afternoon', 1975. (Photo by Warner Brothers/Getty Images)" width="731" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-133286967-731x576.jpg 731w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-133286967-300x236.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-133286967-768x605.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-133286967.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 731px) 100vw, 731px" />Photo by Warner Bros./Getty Images</div>
No A.I. bot could replicate those stories. Tilly Norwood would look foolish among the likes of Diane Keaton, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro.
Maybe Hollywood should view A.I. not as an existential threat but the ultimate challenge.
Hollywood delivered some of the best stories of the modern era thanks to the intense competition fostered by the rise of cable and streaming outlets in the 21st century. “The Sopranos.” “Breaking Bad.” “Game of Thrones.” “Mad Men.”
The industry should view the threat of A.I. as a chance to show those dumb robots what great storytelling is all about.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/">DailyWire.com/Subscribe</a> to join now.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Stars Rage Against AI, But Hollywood’s Been Acting Like A Machine For Years

actors

Artificial Intelligence

Entertainment

Film

Hollywood

Movies

A few weeks ago, President Donald Trump designated Antifa a domestic terrorist organization. Most Americans know Antifa, if they&#8217;re lucky, from news coverage of the chaos it causes driving riots in big cities across the country. 
Ryan Millsap isn&#8217;t one of those Americans. Out of no fault of his own, Ryan found himself neighbors with the terrorist group. 
What started out as an opportunity to make cool movies in a state-of-the-art facility in Georgia turned into a protracted, ad hoc battle with random radicals living in tree houses. 
It’s stories like Ryan’s that expose the very real damage groups like Antifa can do. We&#8217;re proud to have him tell it himself in The Daily Wire. — The Daily Wire
* * *
The past four years of my life have been a relentless storm of attacks, lies, and betrayal — much of it orchestrated by radical activists who would rather burn down progress than see it thrive.
I never expected to end up in the crosshairs of Antifa, and that&#8217;s an understatement.
As a movie studio owner and real estate developer, I built Blackhall Studios into a cornerstone of Georgia’s film industry, creating jobs and opportunities.
When I entered into a land swap deal with DeKalb County, however, I drew the wrath of Antifa. This was all happening next door to the development of a new Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, that became known to the world as “Cop City.” When Antifa caught wind of the deal, chaos ensued.
This is my story. A story about a battle for a piece of land and for the truth in a world quick to crucify conservatives.
<h3>The Beginning: Building A Legacy</h3>
I wasn’t born into wealth. I made it the American way, with hard work and intelligent risk-taking. Growing up in California, I became a real estate developer and investor.
Following the financial crisis of 2008, I saw a new opportunity to acquire real estate across the Southeast and ended up purchasing over 8,000 apartments. In 2016, I seized on Georgia’s film industry boom, founding Blackhall Studios — an 850,000-square-foot powerhouse facility that helped produce hits like “Jungle Cruise,” “Jumanji,” “Venom,” and “Lovecraft Country.”
My team and I built a reputation of working cross-culturally with the community, hand-in-hand with Black leaders and Jewish colleagues. Through Advance DeKalb, I poured resources into the community, even offering to donate space to healthcare workers during the pandemic.
In 2018, I decided to expand Blackhall. Around the same time, the Atlanta Police Foundation planned a state-of-the-art public safety training facility to make Atlanta safer. The “Cop City” idea — next door to our planned expansion — was meant to train police and first responders to protect communities like DeKalb’s. To make it happen, I struck a land swap deal with DeKalb County: 55 acres of my studio’s land for 40 acres of Intrenchment Creek Park.
At the time, county officials and local leaders enthusiastically backed the deal. The county treated me as a partner, excited for the economic boost.
Then, in early 2021, Antifa showed up.
<div id="attachment_989641" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-989641" class="size-large wp-image-989641" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Cop-protest-II-copy-1024x576.jpeg" alt="Credit: Ryan Millsap" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Cop-protest-II-copy-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Cop-protest-II-copy-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Cop-protest-II-copy-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Cop-protest-II-copy-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Cop-protest-II-copy.jpeg 1658w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: Ryan Millsap</div>
<h3>The Turn: Antifa’s War On Progress</h3>
Hiding behind the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” banner, these “squatters” occupied the property, calling it “Weelaunee People’s Park.” To me, they didn’t appear to be peaceful environmentalists, but anarchists, funded and fueled by Antifa’s network, bent on sabotaging both our development and Cop City.
Their treehouses and protests were just the beginning of the chaos they would unleash. The “squatters’” antics turned violent fast. Rocks and full beer cans were thrown at workers on the site.
Then came the relentless legal battles. In 2020, the South River Watershed Alliance (SRWA) <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ga-court-of-appeals/116643343.html">sued me and DeKalb County</a>, alleging the land swap was illegal. Of course, it was not illegal, but abusive litigation is a hallmark of modern leftist terrorists. I filed an affidavit defending the deal, but the county’s response was indirect and they began to backpedal. I believe Antifa’s pressure campaign, with their deep pockets and activist networks, caused officials to abandon me.
Still, I had to fight back. So, I hired contractors and off-duty DeKalb police officers to secure the property. In a heated confrontation in July of 2022, protesters hurled objects at my team. Antifa lit my truck and trailer on fire and turned it into a bonfire of effigy. Then, in October of 2022, activists successfully <a href="https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/anonymous-activist-claims-responsibility-for-blaze-at-dekalb-film-studio-may-this-be-a-warning-to-them">torched</a> Shadowbox Studios (formerly Blackhall).
<div id="attachment_989639" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-989639" class="size-large wp-image-989639" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Truck-burn-768x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Ryan Millsap" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Truck-burn-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Truck-burn-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Truck-burn-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Truck-burn.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />Credit: Ryan Millsap</div>
Meanwhile, I faced an onslaught of media attacks and online smears. A former attorney filed a public lawsuit that became fodder for hit pieces in local and national outlets. Social media campaigns — many from self-identified Antifa supporters — accused me of everything from greed to corruption.
I worked hard to protect my family from all the chaos, but my wife bore the brunt of the stress, living under the shadow of Antifa’s harassment and online threats.
<h3>Where I Stand Today: Fighting For Truth</h3>
More than four years later, the 40 acres I still own remain undeveloped, stalled by the prolonged protests, various lawsuits, and political shenanigans.
I sold Blackhall in 2021 to Commonwealth Group, now Shadowbox Studios, and shifted my focus to other endeavors.
Meanwhile, Cop City finally opened, a victory for law and order despite Antifa’s relentless opposition. President Trump himself highlighted the facility at a roundtable with independent journalists, calling out Antifa’s role in the violence against projects like mine. Their funding, likely from shadowy leftist groups, has fueled the chaos, from car burnings to media smear campaigns, all to stop progress.
<div id="attachment_989643" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-989643" class="wp-image-989643 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2151779643-865x576.jpg" alt="The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, referred to as 'Cop City' by opponents, under construction in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Alexander Cox Taylor runs the family conglomerate, Cox Enterprises Inc., while supporting civic causes in his hometown of Atlanta, including a new $110 million facility to train police and other safety officials. His first cousin, James Cox Chambers Jr., is using his own piece of the fortune to try to shut that very project down. Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2151779643-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2151779643-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2151779643-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2151779643.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" />The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, referred to as &#8216;Cop City&#8217; by opponents, under construction on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
Through it all, my family has been my rock. My wife, kids, and I have faced these attacks together, though the strain of Antifa’s threats and character assassination nonsense has tested us. I have lost many friendships throughout the city and the world because of this manufactured toxicity. But my faith keeps me grounded, and I’m fighting to protect my legacy for my family and community.
This story isn’t just mine — it’s happening in other pockets of America.
Look at the Dakota Access Pipeline, where <a href="https://northdakotamonitor.com/briefs/north-dakota-us-working-to-settle-in-dispute-over-dakota-access-pipeline-protest-costs/">protests</a> against a $3.8 billion oil project in 2016 led to blockades, sabotage, and over 700 arrests, delaying completion and costing developers millions, all fueled by environmental and indigenous activism that echoed Antifa’s tactics.
Consider Tim Pool, the conservative podcaster who bought a derelict lot in West Virginia in 2023 to <a href="https://x.com/Timcast/status/1900216701108564402">build a skatepark</a> for local youth. His dream of a safe space for skaters to hang out was derailed by over two years of vandalism, gang tags, and anonymous threats, driven by opposition to his right-wing politics. Pool was forced to shut it down in 2025, a loss for the community he aimed to serve.
That’s not activism. That’s sabotage.
<h3>A Call For Courage</h3>
These cases and many others show how Antifa and their allies use funded protests, media hit jobs, digital attacks, and endless lawsuits to grind progress to a halt, targeting conservatives with anything they can manufacture to destroy them.
In sharing my experience, I hope to help expose Antifa’s playbook — using chaos and lies to silence those who dare build or challenge their agenda. It’s a call to stand up to their intimidation and defend the America that values hard work and entrepreneurial life.
The past four years have been brutal. Publicly, I’ve been vilified, my name dragged through the mud by Antifa’s allies in the media. But I won’t let terrorists define me. I’m still here, building, fighting, and believing in a country that rewards grit, intelligence, and an indefatigable spirit. They can burn my cars and spread lies, but they won’t break me, this country, or the truth.
To say that I’m excited that President Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-designates-antifa-a-major-terrorist-organization">designated Antifa</a> a terrorist group on October 7, 2025 after Charlie Kirk&#8217;s death is an understatement. I’ve known this truth for many years. These people hate America, hate Americanism, and want to see every hard-working, red-blooded American subjugated to their chaos. We must not let that happen.
* * *
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Ryan Millsap is an entrepreneur, investor, and the founder of Atlanta-based Blackhall Studios, the powerhouse production facility behind films like &#8220;Venom,&#8221; &#8220;Jumanji,&#8221; and &#8220;Jungle Cruise.&#8221; A lifelong builder and unapologetic American capitalist, Millsap has spent his career revitalizing communities through real estate, film, and philanthropy. He is also the host of The Blackhall Podcast where he interviews leaders shaping business, culture, and faith. Millsap continues to champion free enterprise, individual liberty, and the unbreakable American spirit from his home in Georgia.
* * *
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Activists In NYC Demonstrate Against Atlanta’s Planned “Cop City” Police Training Center

Four Years Under Siege: My Battle Against Antifa And The Chaos That Tried To Break Me

Antifa

Atlanta

Georgia

Lawsuit

Leftists

Opinion

Police

“Roofman” doesn’t look or sound like a faith-based movie.
The film follows a prison escapee named Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) who hides out in a toy store while wooing a naïve divorcee (Kirsten Dunst). Paramount Pictures isn’t known for producing religious fare, and director Derek Cianfrance made his name with gritty tales like “Blue Valentine” and “The Place Beyond the Pines.”
Plus, it’s based on a true story. Look closer.
The October release focuses on the divorcee’s tight-knit Christian community. The church welcomes Jeffrey, provides him with support, and is portrayed in a uniformly positive light.
As a result, the real-life figures in the Manchester saga, including the woman played by Dunst, have forgiven Manchester for his transgressions. It helps that the character and the real-life criminal aren’t cruel by nature.
He was a kinder, gentler crook, and the film leans into that dichotomy along with some powerful, redemptive arcs. Tatum’s character spends much of his time clowning around inside a Toys &#8220;R&#8221; Us store, chomping candy, and entertaining himself long after the last customer had left the store.
<div id="attachment_985765" style="width: 816px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-985765" class="wp-image-985765 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Roofman.-Tatum.-Parmount-806x576.jpg" alt="Photo Credit: Davi Russo/Davi Russo. Copyright 2025 PARAMOUNT PICTURES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED." width="806" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Roofman.-Tatum.-Parmount-806x576.jpg 806w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Roofman.-Tatum.-Parmount-300x214.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Roofman.-Tatum.-Parmount-768x549.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Roofman.-Tatum.-Parmount-1536x1097.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Roofman.-Tatum.-Parmount.jpg 2000w" sizes=" (max-width: 806px) 100vw, 806px" />Photo Credit: Davi Russo/Davi Russo. Copyright 2025 PARAMOUNT PICTURES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.</div>
That tone and approach to the spiritual themes was by design, according to Cianfrance.
The director tells The Daily Wire he spent roughly 400 hours talking to the real Jeffrey Manchester, a former California U.S. military sergeant, from prison over a span of four years. 
“I wouldn’t have made the movie if I hadn’t been able to talk to him,” Cianfrance said. The Hollywood veteran learned about not just Manchester but the community that took him in during a curious time in his life.
“The pastor had created this ideologized little society. It was diverse. Old people. Young people. Rich people. Poor people. All different races,” said Cianfrance, who grew up Catholic. “They welcomed everyone.”
The director made sure that spirit infused the film, and he acknowledges that Hollywood doesn’t always capture faith in a positive way. That’s being generous.
<div id="attachment_985797" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-985797" class="size-large wp-image-985797" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2238204363-864x576.jpg" alt="LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 29: (L-R) Peter Dinklage, Melonie Diaz, Uzo Aduba, Alissa Marie Pearson, Channing Tatum, Esmé McSherry, Kirsten Dunst, Derek Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn attend the Los Angeles Premiere of Paramount Pictures' &quot;Roofman&quot; at Paramount Theatre on September 29, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2238204363-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2238204363-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2238204363-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2238204363.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Monica Schipper/Getty Images</div>
“In Hollywood movies, they present Christianity or the church, any kind of church, in a very negative light. It’s almost like a punchline, something to satirize … I don’t have that perspective in my heart,” he said.
Manchester’s stint outside of jail allowed him to find a welcoming community, a positive sign in a rather twisted story. “We’re so divided as a society … this movie was a chance for me to shine a light on them.”
He still wasn’t entirely sold on the project at first. On paper, the saga of Jeffrey Manchester seemed too surreal even for a feature film.
The real Manchester robbed his fair share of fast-food joints, but he also extended kindness to the startled employees along the way. An early scene in “Roofman” finds Tatum’s character giving his jacket to a worker who he steered into the restaurant’s cooler so he would stay warm until the authorities arrived to free him.
<div id="attachment_985775" style="width: 816px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-985775" class="wp-image-985775 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Tatum.-Roofman.-Paramount-II-806x576.jpg" alt="Photo Credit: Davi Russo/Davi Russo. Copyright 2025 PARAMOUNT PICTURES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED." width="806" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Tatum.-Roofman.-Paramount-II-806x576.jpg 806w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Tatum.-Roofman.-Paramount-II-300x214.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Tatum.-Roofman.-Paramount-II-768x549.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Tatum.-Roofman.-Paramount-II-1536x1097.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Tatum.-Roofman.-Paramount-II.jpg 2000w" sizes=" (max-width: 806px) 100vw, 806px" />Photo Credit: Davi Russo/Davi Russo. Copyright 2025 PARAMOUNT PICTURES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.</div>
He also had a path to freedom at one point in his journey, according to Cianfrance, but he chose to reunite with someone he met during his prison break instead.
“His humanity made him a less effective criminal,” the director said, and that triggered his creative Spidey Senses. “I asked myself, ‘Is this for real?” That led him to chat with Manchester for hour upon hour, but he still wasn’t convinced.
He had to speak to the people in his life, the members of Crossroads Church whom he bamboozled.
“They validated all of his stories, even the crazier ones,” said the director, implying he left some material out of his script to keep the film credible. He expected the church’s pastor, Ron Smith, and Leigh Wainscott to be furious with Manchester’s deceptions. Their memories of him proved much more complicated and empathetic.
“They were the ones who redeemed him,” Cianfrance said.
Manchester has accepted his fate as an inmate at Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C. He knows he repeatedly broke the law and only disagrees with the length of his sentence, according to Cianfrance. His <a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/movies/roofman-true-story-jeffrey-manchester-rcna236165">release date</a> is December 2036.
Manchester eventually gave “Roofman” and Cianfrance his blessing via their string of phone calls.
“Derek, this is my story, but it’s your movie &#8230; I want you to make your movie,” he recalled.
<div id="attachment_985789" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-985789" class="size-large wp-image-985789" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2239586469-864x576.jpg" alt="NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 06: Channing Tatum and Derek Cianfrance visit the SiriusXM Studios on October 06, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2239586469-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2239586469-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2239586469-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2239586469.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Cindy Ord/Getty Images</div>
The director’s film came in with a <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/box-office-jared-leto-tron-ares-1236397724/">$19 million budget</a>, a small sum for an industry struggling to share original stories untethered to established IPs. That made its modest $8 million opening frame acceptable by industry standards.
What Cianfrance finds unacceptable is the sudden, shocking threat AI poses to his industry.
“Writing is hard &#8230; staring at a screen and not knowing [what to write]. It’s the struggle where you find the journey, the process of writing that I love,” he said. “It’s not about getting it right or finding the solution.”
“I embrace the mistakes not the perfection,” he continued. “I think what makes us all unique is not how perfect we are, it’s our flaws. The human flaws can’t be replicated by AI.”
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Variety Cover Party Presented By RBC At RBC House, Toronto International Film Festival 2025

Director Derek Cianfrance On ‘Roofman’: A True Story Of Faith Hollywood Rarely Tells

Director Derek Cianfrance On 'Roofman': A True Story Of Faith Hollywood Rarely Tells

Channing Tatum

Paramount

In 2017, “Saturday Night Live” uncorked a riotous “‘Woke Jeans’ commercial” tied to the growing woke movement.
The clip proved an exception to the mainstream comedy rule. Woke was more or less off limits to “SNL,” Late-Night hosts, and film comedies, despite a dearth of material.
Insane cultural rules. Virtue-signaling politicians. Identity Politics gone wild. The comic possibilities seemed endless.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Levi&#039;s Wokes - SNL" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/adPXDTvADD0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
Nothing to laugh about here. Move along. Only Comedy Central’s “South Park” regularly targeted the cultural scourge via PC Principal, trans athletes in women’s sports, and related gags.
Now, things are changing. It’s suddenly acceptable to mock the progressive overreach.
The new movie “Eddington” takes direct aim at woke, along with COVID-19 restrictions, conspiracy theorists and BLM sloganeering.
Director Ari Aster’s film isn’t one-sided or brimming with lectures. It takes us back to May 2020, a time when the George Floyd riots were raging across America and government rules made citizens mask up to stop the virus’ spread.
<div id="attachment_955565" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-955565" class="wp-image-955565 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-1024x576.jpg" alt="Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in “Eddington” (2025) A24. Square Peg Productions. 828 Productions. IMDB." width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in “Eddington” (2025) A24. Square Peg Productions. 828 Productions. IMDB.</div>
The story unfolds in a fictional small town in New Mexico, one about to be rocked by dueling social contagions.
It’s uncomfortable to watch and often hilarious, mocking both Alex Jones types and white teens desperate to be woke. The latter ape the progressive talking points of their big-city peers, desperate to fit in and appear cool.
Heck, one newly woke teen just wants to “get” with a pretty girl, and he’ll virtue all the signals he can to make that happen.
The film’s biggest laugh? A white teen explains his “privilege” to his parents, and his father snaps back at him.
“Are you a f***ing retard? You’re white.”
Aster’s films aren’t blockbusters, but his arthouse musings represent mainstream artistic values. And, yes, he went there. So much so that a New York Times <a href="https://x.com/matthewschmitz/status/1947120245329576009">film critic</a> literally <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/ny-times-eddington-director-mocking-blm/">cursed him out</a> for inserting those gags in his film.
<blockquote>“F*** you, Ari Aster. Really, seriously. It’s so easy to mock these things. People are still dying from COVID. We may no longer be living in a pandemic… I just don’t find it funny, and I find it really important for people to, I think white people should interrogate their f***Ing whiteness, and I think Ari Aster should start.”</blockquote>
Triggered.
<div id="attachment_955653" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-955653" class="size-large wp-image-955653" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2215538204-864x576.jpg" alt="CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 17: (L-R) Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, Ari Aster, Joaquin Phoenix and Austin Butler pose during the &quot;Eddington&quot; photocall at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 17, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2215538204-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2215538204-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2215538204-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2215538204.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Andreas Rentz/Getty Images</div>
The recent horror-comedy “Ick” from provocateur Joseph Kahn also tees-off on woke overreach. The story follows another small town where calamity strikes. This time, the danger comes from a mysterious plant-like substance that goes from benign to deadly.
The menace allows Kahn to satirize American culture, conspiracy mongers (again) and that woke mind virus. Virtue signaling takes it on the chin, as do students talking like an unproduced Lena Dunham sitcom.
It’s far from flattering.
Those eager for a deeper dive into woke excess can read “The Sandersons Fail Manhattan.&#8221; Author Scott Johnston’s biting satire follows a rich New York family caught up in the city&#8217;s progressive mania. A fancy prep school is desperate to recruit its first trans student, while the story&#8217;s patriarch must learn if his colleague is gay enough to satisfy key DEI requirements.
<div id="attachment_955657" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sandersons-Fail-Manhattan-Novel/dp/1250384788"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-955657" class="size-large wp-image-955657" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-384x576.jpg" alt="Cover Credit: St. Martin's Press" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-1360x2040.jpg 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Cover Credit: St. Martin&#8217;s Press</div>
While “Eddington” and “Ick” take shots at woke, “Manhattan” is a full-on assault against Identity Politics and its cultural tendrils. No apologies.
Even comedians can shred woke pieties from major platforms without fear of reprisal and tell jokes that the woke mob deemed off limits.
Last year, the comedy roast format roared back to life with Netflix’s “tribute” to NFL great Tom Brady.
More recently, stand-up comic Shane Gillis proved that anew. Gillis, starring in Netflix’s rowdy comedy “Tires,” is a walking, talking testament to woke’s cultural decline. The comedian got hired, and promptly fired, by “SNL” for crude comments tied to Asian culture. Rather than fade into obscurity, Gillis went back to work, rebuilding his career.
His star rose so high that “SNL” invited him to host the program – twice – without censoring his rebellious streak.
<div id="attachment_955665" style="width: 835px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-955665" class="size-large wp-image-955665" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225471382-825x576.jpg" alt="HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - JULY 16: Shane Gillis speaks onstage during the 2025 ESPY Awards at Dolby Theatre on July 16, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)" width="825" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225471382-825x576.jpg 825w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225471382-300x209.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225471382-768x536.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225471382.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 825px) 100vw, 825px" />Kevin Winter/Getty Images</div>
More recently, he emceed the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shane-gillis-destroys-the-espys-and-wokeness">ESPY Awards</a>, mocking woke sacred cows like former soccer player Megan Rapinoe, a progressive scold synonymous with virtue signaling.
“Megan Rapinoe could not make it tonight … nice.”
A few media outlets grumbled about his “problematic” material. No Cancel Culture-style punishment ensued, nor was he forced to make a “hostage”-style apology.
Now, a rare voice eager to mock the woke mindset returns to do more of the same. “Beavis &amp; Butt-head” creator Mike Judge took an early swing at woke with his failed 2009 ABC sitcom “The Goode Family.” The show proved ahead of its time, teasing a hard-Left clan who strained to be better than, well, everyone.
Now, Judge is using his “King of the Hill” reboot to satirize gender fluidity, cultural appropriation and more on Hulu starting August 4.
Judge isn’t as merciless as Johnston, but his “Hill” gags give the game away. One episode finds wokesters attacking Bobby Hill, now a young man and overseeing a fusion restaurant. The menu in question sparks cries of cultural appropriation, leaving the Hill clan confused and upset.
The show finds a resolution, albeit one that illustrates the wobbly nature of woke criticism.
Has the pop culture dam finally broken on all things woke? The re-election of Donald Trump pushed the pendulum, hard, in that direction. We’re seeing the fruits of that shift now in pop culture.
More may follow.
And, if “SNL,” late-night TV and mainstream comedies continue to avoid these juicy targets, their cultural clout will diminish even further. Just <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyc-were-with-colbert-rally-draws-tens-of-people-even-cops-go-home">ask Stephen Colbert how that works</a>.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738

Triggered Yet? Pop Culture’s Woke Takedown Has Begun

Triggered Yet? Pop Culture's Woke Takedown Has Begun

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More than two weeks after President Donald Trump announced a 100% tariff on movies produced outside of the United States, Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order on Tuesday that she says will cut red tape and make it easier for entertainment professionals to film in her city.
The move comes after production has shifted dramatically toward different locations outside the city, including U.S.-based filming spots and foreign countries where it’s cheaper and easier to make movies and television shows.
“We are going to fight now,” Bass <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/movies/los-angeles-film-industry.html">said</a>. “While we push for the tax credits to be passed in Sacramento, we need to do what we can today to impact building in Los Angeles.
“The City is taking bold action to support our legacy industry,” she continued. “Keeping entertainment production in L.A. means keeping good-paying jobs in L.A., and that’s what we are fighting for.”
Specific popular locations in L.A., which she says will be easier for filmmakers to access, include the Griffith Observatory, the L.A. Central Library, and the Port of Los Angeles, among others. The directive also reduces the number of city employees who must be on-site during filming down to one. 
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=memorial&amp;utm_content=editorialmemorialday" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Memorial Day Sale – Get 40% Off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
The move comes after President Trump made <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-movie-industry-is-dying-puts-plan-in-place-to-save-it">headlines</a> saying Hollywood was dying a &#8220;very fast death,&#8221; calling incentives from other countries to produce movies outside of the United States &#8220;a national security threat.&#8221; 
“Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social earlier this month.
“It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands,” he added. “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”

Karen Bass

Weeks After Trump’s Film Tariff, L.A. Mayor Issues Order To Bring Productions Back To Hollywood

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One of President Donald Trump’s better qualities flies far under the radar. He doesn’t hold a grudge. That’s especially true when there’s a greater good in play.
Then-candidate Trump sparred aggressively with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly during the 2016 campaign. Late last year, Kelly endorsed Trump, speaking at a MAGA rally days before the Nov. 5 election.
The president once dubbed a presidential rival “Little” Marco Rubio. That politician is currently Trump’s trusted Secretary of State.
Now, Trump wants to make amends with Hollywood, an industry that loathes him with the heat of a thousand suns. This act of forgiveness dwarfs them all, but Trump sees movies as a vital part of the nation’s soft power as well as a critical industry.
<div id="attachment_877383" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-877383" class="size-large wp-image-877383" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-877916002-863x576.jpg" alt="HOLLYWOOD, CA - DECEMBER 06: Donald Trump star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California on Dec. 6, 2016." width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-877916002-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-877916002-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-877916002-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-877916002-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-877916002-2048x1368.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-877916002-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-877916002-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />shalunts. Getty Images.</div>
It’s why Hollywood should swallow hard and play nice with President Trump. Or, at the very least, lend him its collective ear.
Trump’s shocking outreach began with, what else, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-movie-industry-is-dying-puts-plan-in-place-to-save-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a social media post</a>. He promised 100% tariffs on movies made outside of the U.S.
<blockquote>I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands,” he added. “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!&#8221;</blockquote>
All heck broke loose in La La Land, with entertainment news outlets spinning furiously against the vague proposal.
Call it Trump’s opening volley, part of the president’s knack for starting with big claims and negotiating from there. It’s similar to Trump’s earlier announcement that movie superstars Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight would form a group of “Ambassadors” to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-appoints-a-list-stars-as-ambassadors-to-hollywood" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revive the flailing film industry.</a>
<blockquote>It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!</blockquote>
Except the news seemed to have caught the trio by surprise and, only recently, did one of the actors, Voight, step forward with <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/news/jon-voight-trump-hollywood-tariff-1236390109/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concrete plans</a> on making Hollywood great again.
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/05/07/nx-s1-5389865/trump-movie-tariffs-jon-voight-tax-incentives-hollywood" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NPR described Voight’s vision</a> as “federal tax incentives, co-production treaties with other countries and subsidies for theater owners and film and TV production companies.”
<div id="attachment_861225" style="width: 987px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-861225" class="size-large wp-image-861225" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Jon-Voight-977x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 19: Actor Jon Voight speaks at Donald Trump's victory rally on January 19, 2025 in Washington, DC. U.S. President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance will be sworn in on January 20. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)" width="977" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Jon-Voight-977x576.jpg 977w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Jon-Voight-300x177.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Jon-Voight-768x453.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Jon-Voight.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px" />Scott Olson/Getty Images</div>
The “Midnight Cowboy” star acknowledged the rift between Trump and Hollywood, adding that it shouldn&#8217;t distract from the big picture.
“I think he’s been treated unfairly. I think I have too. But what’s the difference? Who cares?” Voight asks. “I mean, there’s been a battle, but now it’s time to put that aside. And I must say, in all of the interactions we’ve had [on addressing runaway production], politics has never come up. Never.”
Hollywood, Inc. would be foolish not to listen.
Yes, the box office came roaring back in recent weeks, courtesy of hits like “Sinners” and “A Minecraft Movie.” That doesn’t camouflage the sizable issues confronting movie studios, from the death of the modern movie star to escalating film budgets.
Case in point? The upcoming “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” has a <a href="https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2025/3/25/mission-impossible-8-has-a-400m-budget" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$400 million budget</a>, meaning it will have to dramatically out-perform the best films in the series to make a profit.
Hollywood’s problems would make a depressing feature.
Film and TV productions have been fleeing Los Angeles for some time. Streaming platforms have proven to be far less profitable than hoped, with Netflix emerging as the strongest money maker for now.
The DVD/Blu-ray gravy train slowed some time ago, removing a safety net for films that didn’t catch fire at theaters.
Dueling 2023 strikes hurt the industry more than anticipated, and the threat of A.I. to the creative community looms in the not-so-distant future. Social media, YouTube and other distractions now dominate the culture, making young consumers <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/deloitte-gen-z-creator-content-streaming-price-1236171227/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">less invested in Hollywood product</a>.
Meanwhile, California Democrats are <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-05-06/newsom-called-for-a-federal-tax-incentive-to-save-hollywood-but-will-that-actually-happen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scrambling to prevent productions</a> from leaving the City of Angels for more receptive states and countries. That’s left countless Calif.-based crew members desperate for work. <a href="https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/new-york-film-subsidy-jersey-1236392167/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York just followed suit</a>.
Hollywood players hate Trump so much some wish they could erase his presence from pop culture of yore. “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/news/home-alone-2-director-trump-cameo-removed-1236369779/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">director said just that about Trump’s seconds-long cameo</a> in his 1992 film.
<div id="attachment_908099" style="width: 832px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-908099" class="size-large wp-image-908099" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Donald-Trump-Macauley-Culkin-822x576.jpg" alt="Macaulay Culkin" width="822" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Donald-Trump-Macauley-Culkin-822x576.jpg 822w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Donald-Trump-Macauley-Culkin-300x210.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Donald-Trump-Macauley-Culkin-768x538.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Donald-Trump-Macauley-Culkin.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 822px) 100vw, 822px" />Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images</div>
Others have alternately <a href="https://variety.com/2016/tv/news/louis-c-k-donald-trump-insane-bigot-dangerous-1201723679/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dubbed him Hitler</a> or <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/celebrities-wished-trump-dead/">wished him dead</a>. That sentiment may be hard to overcome.
The perfect storm of problems facing Hollywood may be too much for any presidential plan to solve. Gen Z’s drift away from movie watching can’t be assuaged by new policies. Stars still insist on <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/fantastic-four-rachel-zegler-problem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">insulting potential customers</a>, from “Snow White’s” Rachel Zegler to the cast of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.”
The two sides need to put aside their differences for the greater good. A healthy film market impacts more than just studio executives, theater owners and various crew members.
Hollywood movies send a message to the world. Films like “The Pursuit of Happyness” (2006) showcase the power of the American capitalist system. Others promote values like individual liberty (2012’s “Still Mine”) and triumphs over adversity (2016’s “Hidden Figures”).
It’s why China invests so heavily in its movie industry. The Communist nation wants to put the nation’s best foot forward on the big screen, removing sequences from foreign films that cast the country in a negative light.
President Trump may not make Hollywood great again. He could help the industry thrive against all odds.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Wants To Make Hollywood Great Again — Will The Industry Listen?

Jon Voight

Mel Gibson

Netflix

New York City

President Trump

Sylvester Stallone

The following is an edited transcript of an interview with Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham and Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan on the growing, public PR battle between actress Blake Lively and film director Justin Baldoni. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/blake-lively-and-justin-baldoni-s-epic-hollywood-battle-2-8-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Catch the full interview on Morning Wire</a>.
* * *
Actress Blake Lively and director Justin Baldoni are continuing their public feud over their hit film, &#8220;It Ends With Us,&#8221; with both sides filing lawsuits. But even more than a legal battle, this has become an all-out PR war with leaked texts, calls, and film footage, as well as allegations of sexual harassment and spousal jealousy. The first trial date is set for March. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham speaks with award-winning journalist, author and Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan to get insight into a drama only Hollywood could produce.
MEGAN: Thanks for being here, Maureen. So, especially for those of us who are kind of catching up with this story, I&#8217;m wondering if you can give us the 10,000 foot summary of this scandal?
MAUREEN: Sure. So about a month ago, the New York Times ran a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/business/media/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-it-ends-with-us.html?searchResultPosition=9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blockbuster</a>, I think 4,000 word piece, in which Blake Lively was alleging her director and co-star Justin Baldoni, on their film “It Ends With Us,” had subjected her to almost ritualistic sexual harassment — and that she suffered so greatly, it was a concerted effort in which he involved multiple people to not only harass her while filming, but then once the movie was about to be released, orchestrated an online smear campaign against her. A couple of weeks later, Baldoni&#8217;s lawyer, Bryan Freedman filed a countersuit in which he alleged that the text messages obtained by the New York Times had been selectively edited. They sort of threw open their document dump, which seemed to absolve Justin of many of the things that Lively has been claiming. Nonetheless, these two are now locked in a bitter, bitter, expensive lawsuit. Baldoni is countersuing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for $400 million, which is, I believe, what he thinks their estimated net worth is. And the trial is tentatively set for March 2026.
MEGAN: So, before we get to some of the legal ramifications, there have obviously been a lot of leaks, a lot of shifting in public loyalties back and forth. At least that&#8217;s been my experience. At the outset, I was kind of on Team Justin. And then I thought, “Well, wait a minute. That New York Times piece was really persuasive.” But then Justin Baldoni&#8217;s team released some new audio leaks and they sort of shifted the game a little bit. What&#8217;s your sense right now of who&#8217;s on top in the PR war?
MAUREEN: I think Blake Lively is suffering mightily right now and the collateral fallout is affecting not just her husband, Ryan Reynolds, but her so called “Dragon,” her BFF Taylor Swift, who it&#8217;s reported has been taking a step back from her friendship with Blake because she doesn&#8217;t want any of this runoff affecting her career. Justin&#8217;s team has been very smart in what they&#8217;re leaking and when. They leaked footage of the two of them while filming a scene, rehearsing a scene, in which they were dancing very closely and Justin had his mic on. And so they&#8217;re working out how they&#8217;re going to do this scene. Justin is saying, “I think we should be kissing.” And Blake says, “No, I think we should be talking. I think that&#8217;s even more intimate.” And Justin says, “Okay.” So that sort of takes some wind out of her sails. They also released another lengthy voice memo that Justin had sent to Blake in which he&#8217;s praising her to the high heavens and saying he has let her down by not taking all of her notes, and she&#8217;s so brilliant and so smart, and he&#8217;s going to do everything he can to make her happy. Again, a counter narrative to Lively&#8217;s claims that he was doing everything possible to sabotage her and make her feel unsafe on that set. So I think right now Baldoni&#8217;s team is in the power position, but that of course could shift in another few days.
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MEGAN: Well, you know, it seems like there was a moment where Lively could have disengaged and, and just moved on. And this would have been something of a blip on Hollywood&#8217;s gossip radar. Why do you think she escalated to a lawsuit that opened up so much more of these internal communications?
MAUREEN: This is such a great question, Megan, because if you think about it the damage has already been done to her. Think about it, there are like five female directors working in Hollywood today. What male director is going to put himself and his career and reputation at risk by working with Blake Lively, who launched this all out assault on a guy who is not as well capitalized as she and Ryan are, who doesn&#8217;t have the reputation, the lengthy career — who on earth would risk it? And I have to wonder why she did it, because like you said, it could have just been, you know, a thing where they butted heads, they didn&#8217;t see eye-to-eye, but they each walked away clean to do their next project. I have a theory — and it is just my own theory and supposition — that something went on between these two. Perhaps it was an unrequited crush on Blake&#8217;s part and Justin didn&#8217;t respond in kind; perhaps they did in some way have a physical relationship outside of the filming and that went south. There&#8217;s something about this that just feels way too intense, way too personal. I think the real undergirding, the real story is why she did this.
<div id="attachment_873967" style="width: 860px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-873967" class="size-large wp-image-873967" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1928882045-850x576.jpg" alt="JERSEY CITY, NJ - JANUARY 12: Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively are seen on the set of 'It Ends with Us' on January 12, 2024 in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)" width="850" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1928882045-850x576.jpg 850w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1928882045-300x203.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1928882045-768x521.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1928882045.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px" />Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images</div>
MEGAN: Well, I&#8217;m glad that you bring that up, because I do want to talk a little bit about those messages between Baldoni and Lively. And I know some media outlets characterize them as “flirty,” I don&#8217;t know that I necessarily saw them that way, but I at least saw them as very familiar, let&#8217;s put it that way.
MAUREEN: I kind of read them as flirty — even the text messages between Justin and Ryan Reynolds. Look, if anybody listening wants to get a taste of what it&#8217;s like to deal with Hollywood people, this is it. And it&#8217;s really quite vile because they&#8217;re just mooning over each other. I mean, they&#8217;ve just met and Ryan hasn&#8217;t responded to Justin&#8217;s text for two weeks and then he replies and says, “I happen to adore you, Justin.” It&#8217;s like, buy me dinner first before you start talking to me like this. It&#8217;s disgusting. And, you know, Justin and Blake are having a very familiar texting relationship that, whether they were that familiar, whether it was this sort of hastened intimacy because they were working so closely together so quickly, who knows? But now we&#8217;re going to see. I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s any slight that&#8217;s not going to be weaponized. I just read an item yesterday that Blake Lively blew a good chunk of the movie&#8217;s budget on her wardrobe. I mean, this is how petty we&#8217;re going to get. I love it, but it is the strangest Hollywood war. I&#8217;m going to say it&#8217;s maybe the biggest one since Brad versus Angie.
MEGAN: Do you think Lively and Reynolds, at least as a couple, their image — like maybe Reynolds individually, Lively individually — do kind of come back from this? Because, you know, Brad and Angelina eventually did. But does their image as this blissful “It” couple bounce back?
MAUREEN: Well, Megan, first of all, when I said Brad versus Angie, I meant like when they divorced, when they separated, and it was like the bombshells were going off: “He was abusive. She was out of her mind.” This will be the thing that shows the strength of their marriage. I&#8217;m very cynical, so I really do believe that if this blowback against Blake gets to be too much, Ryan&#8217;s going to cut her loose. I think Ryan Reynolds has his eyes firmly set on becoming a billionaire, and I believe he&#8217;ll get there. And I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s going to stand for his reputation getting muddied in all of this, even though he&#8217;s already in it with these lawsuits and all of these text messages and these documents. And he was famously brought in by Blake to write a whole scene in the movie and be some sort of unpaid advisor. So I think that&#8217;s really where you&#8217;re going to see the strength of this countersuit against Justin, if it really does sort of crater their marriage.
MEGAN: Well, maybe just a couple more questions, Maureen. One of them is that The New York Times has come under a lot of scrutiny for the role it played in sort of rehabilitating Lively&#8217;s claims when she was on the outs in terms of public affection. I have seen some claims that they handled the coverage in a biased way, clearly working hand in glove with Blake Lively&#8217;s team. What do you think? Is there any validity to that claim?
MAUREEN: Yes, I think there is. It seems as though, perhaps, they didn&#8217;t do their full due diligence. I think it was probably seen, initially, as a strength, but is now a liability. I forget how many bylines were on that piece, but one, Megan Twohey, was one half of the team at the Times that broke the Harvey Weinstein story and became synonymous with MeToo. They wrote a book. They made a lot of money off of it. And I think the Times is already struggling in many ways reputationaly and this does not help. If I recall correctly, I could be mistaken so forgive me, but if I recall correctly I think they went to Baldoni&#8217;s team and gave them two hours to respond to that laundry list of accusations. So if that&#8217;s true, it&#8217;s not a great look. [NOTE: <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/news/justin-baldoni-lawsuit-blake-lively-ryan-reynolds-nicepool-new-york-times-metadata-1236293856/">Some outlets</a> report The New York Times gave Baldoni approximately 12 hours to respond.]
<div id="attachment_873969" style="width: 804px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-873969" class="size-large wp-image-873969" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1925904572-794x576.jpg" alt="JERSEY CITY, NJ - JANUARY 12: Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are seen on the set of &quot;It Ends with Us&quot; on January 12, 2024 in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)" width="794" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1925904572-794x576.jpg 794w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1925904572-300x218.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1925904572-768x557.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1925904572.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px" />Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images</div>
MEGAN: Well, you kind of intuited where I was going to go next. And that was the role that MeToo has played in this, with these claims, that it was a sexual harassment issue. So, do you think on a broader level, the tide has turned? And maybe this is because of Johnny Depp. Because before, I think there was a period of time when even the public was willing to say, “Hey, I don&#8217;t know that that&#8217;s a MeToo allegation.” I&#8217;m thinking of something like Aziz Ansari where there was a lot of back and forth debate about that. In this case, it seems like some of these men in Hollywood who don&#8217;t even possess the power of some of these women are now willing to challenge these MeToo allegations. So, do you think this sort of shifts the balance on where we are with MeToo?
MAUREEN: Yes, I think this case is very important in terms of where we are and where we&#8217;re going. I agree with you. The Aziz Ansari thing was ridiculous. If that allegation had come out maybe a year later, his career would not have been destroyed. I think we are now seeing a pendulum swing back towards sanity where just because a woman says a man did something to her, it&#8217;s not automatically received as gospel, that the man does get a chance to tell his side of the story and back it up with documents, receipts, screenshots, texts, voicemail, and it certainly helps when you have movie footage. So I think this is going to be an interesting case in terms of the cultural corrective that is underway.
MEGAN: Okay. Well, last question: Any predictions for the March trial?
MAUREEN: You know, I&#8217;ll be amazed if it gets there. Because I would think saner heads would prevail, and both sides should really just drop it and walk away. Justin Baldoni&#8217;s lawyer has already said he&#8217;s pretty much bankrupted by this, financially and emotionally. I don&#8217;t know what good it does for Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds to have this be the headline of their careers for the next calendar year, and that&#8217;s just to start. So, I think it&#8217;ll be interesting to see if it ever really comes to fruition, and if there is some sort of settlement reached, who pays who? This is really just Hollywood writ large, right? The egotism, the narcissism, the ridiculous sums of money, the victimization, the weaponization perhaps, we don&#8217;t know yet, but perhaps of MeToo, it&#8217;s such a great, weird stew of stuff.
MEGAN: Well, thank you Maureen. That was enlightening. I kind of can&#8217;t wait to see where this goes next.
MAUREEN: I know, it&#8217;s like every day we get another tidbit. Yes, thanks for having me.
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<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/blake-lively-and-justin-baldoni-s-epic-hollywood-battle-2-8-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Catch the full interview on Morning Wire</a>.

Celebrity Sightings In Jersey City – January 12, 2024

‘Way Too Personal’: The Escalating PR War Between Blake Lively And Justin Baldoni

actress

Blake Lively

interview

MeToo

Morning Wire

Ryan Reynolds

Sexual Harassment

The New York Times

Hollywood is on fire, literally and figuratively.
Dueling strikes shut the industry down in 2023 and it hasn’t fully bounced back. The pandemic chased viewers to the comfort of their couches, pummeling the theatrical experience. YouTube creators are luring eyeballs away from network TV at a fraction of the price point, as are social media platforms and video games.
There’s no better time for a Hollywood Plan B. Could that involve the Lone Star State?
Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey sure think so.
The “True Detective” alums joined forces for <a href="https://x.com/McConaughey/status/1884652597618872439" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a new video campaign</a> tied to Texas-based filmmaking. They’re playing their iconic characters from the HBO series, but this isn’t fiction.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Texas stories deserve a Texas backdrop. That’s why I teamed up with Dennis Quaid, Woody Harrelson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Renée Zellweger for True to Texas. It’s time to bring film and TV productions home! <a href="https://t.co/iMpRMRx2Hj">pic.twitter.com/iMpRMRx2Hj</a>
&mdash; Matthew McConaughey (@McConaughey) <a href="https://twitter.com/McConaughey/status/1884652597618872439?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
It’s a bona fide plea for more Texas movie making. The Oscar-winning actor from “Dallas Buyers Club” starts the pitch.
“Hollywood is a flat circle … this industry is like somebody’s memory of an industry, and the memory’s fading. I’m talking about a whole new hub for film and television. A renaissance. A rebirth.”
“A small fraction of Texas budget surplus to turn this state into the new Hollywood,” Harrelson adds.
“If all these other states are going to offer an incentive, then that’s where we’re going to keep going. I just wish we could bring some of these productions home to Texas.” So says fellow Oscar winner Renée Zellweger.
The spot also features fellow Hollywood heavyweights like Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Quaid.
<div id="attachment_870649" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-870649" class="size-large wp-image-870649" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2185185061-864x576.jpg" alt="DENVER, COLORADO - NOVEMBER 16: Woody Harrelson attends the Global Down Syndrome Foundation's 16th Annual Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show at Sheraton Downtown Denver Hotel on November 16, 2024 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Tom Cooper/Getty Images for Global Down Syndrome Foundation)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2185185061-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2185185061-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2185185061-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2185185061.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Tom Cooper/Getty Images</div>
This isn’t happening in a vacuum.
California has been shedding TV and film projects for some time. States like Georgia and New Mexico teem with new projects, generated in large part by tax-friendly policies and rebates.
That doesn’t factor in the high price of living in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s struggling state. Have you filled up a car in California these days?
The timing couldn’t be better on the cultural front. Entertainment production no longer caters to the coasts. Joe Rogan moved the comedy epicenter from New York City to Austin, Texas, with his Comedy Mothership club and its unwoke ethos.
<div id="attachment_870669" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-870669" class="size-large wp-image-870669" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2179800231-864x576.jpg" alt="AUSTIN, TEXAS - OCTOBER 20: Joe Rogan looks on in the Paddock prior to the F1 Grand Prix of United States at Circuit of The Americas on October 20, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Mark Sutton/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2179800231-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2179800231-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2179800231-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2179800231.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Mark Sutton/Getty Images</div>
Stand-up superstars like Tom Segura, Ron White, Tony Hinchcliffe now call Austin home. Others, like Tyler Fischer and Roseanne Barr, also decamped to the state, at least part time.
To many, Hollywood is no longer exclusively thought of as the sole movie-making hub. Other cities and states are leaning into that new normal.
Nashville productions are on the rise, from Daily Wire exclusives to projects via Universal Music Group Nashville. The latter just created a new production arm with plans to create film and TV projects. Oscar winners Jamie Lee Curtis and Nicole Kidman are shooting Amazon Prime’s “Scarpetta,” an episode drama in Nashville <a href="https://wbkr.com/nicole-kidman-jamie-lee-curtis-to-film-crime-series-in-nashville/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">through February</a>.
Superstar Mark Wahlberg wants to make Las Vegas “Hollywood East.” The “Flight Risk” star hopes to spearhead <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-wahlberg-wants-las-vegas-210015408.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAN2tOcOAJ2iSv_bSzRVvQNxMSfDXob7TqLVBSfH-dAbH2LxgVos7cZmbLJP9TXKzjd8Dc5xVU61GoT2BkUlWfHSha5E0Pzy4WJGT5aTGgu1M7N2s7DI5UKFFL82FVLnsyIiSQGObDFD8LL-8F5V9xScC2W3v_SZ778RVSQj6u_yy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a $1.8 billion Sony studio</a> in the state to compete with Hollywood.
“I think ultimately that would be the goal. <a href="https://www.fox5vegas.com/2024/10/18/mark-walhberg-wants-california-movie-studios-follow-his-move-nevada/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">They all used to make movies right there in LA</a> and people don’t do it anymore,” Wahlberg said.
He’ll have some company.
Warner Bros. Discovery also has its eye on Las Vegas. Warner Bros. Studios Nevada, a plan dependent on the state’s tax credit structure, would bring more filmmaking to the state.
So why not Texas? 
The state offers endless vistas worthy of a cinematic closeup. Small Town USA? Check! Big, bustling urban centers like Dallas? Covered. Texas’s red-state policies mean cost-of-living issues won’t upend productions, and it’s far less dysfunctional than the Golden State.
And top-tier stars are singing the state’s praises in a very public forum. When a Dennis Quaid, a star for nearly 50 years, suggests a state needs a close-up, people should listen.
Previously, Owen Wilson and Glen Powell joined with McConaughey and Thornton to buoy Texas filmmaking with a similar 2023 video.
<div id="attachment_870645" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-870645" class="size-large wp-image-870645" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2189988716-864x576.jpg" alt="LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 14: Billy Bob Thornton attends the SAG Nom Comm screening of &quot;Landman&quot; at DGA Theater Complex on December 14, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Paramount+)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2189988716-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2189988716-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2189988716-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2189988716.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Paramount+</div>
<a href="https://variety.com/2024/film/markets-festivals/yellowstone-mayor-of-kingstown-texas-film-production-1236004446/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The infrastructure is in place</a>, too. The state approved a $200 million grant last year, that runs through August, to entice more projects. That got Taylor Sheridan’s attention.
The biggest name in episodic TV chose Texas for both his home and a sprawling real estate enterprise planning to host film and TV productions down the short road. His latest smash, Paramount+’s “Landman,” filmed in Fort Worth, Texas.
<a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/2025/01/31/matthew-mcconaughey-woody-harrelson-push-for-more-texas-film-incentives-in-ad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sheridan made a personal pitch for Texas</a> last fall before the state’s Senate Finance Committee.
“We desperately need the employees. I would much, much, much rather hire a Texas local than fly in somebody from another state,” Sheridan said.
Some Texas-based Republicans have split feelings about the Hollywood influx. Newsweek reports several officials <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/matthew-mcconaugheys-push-hollywood-texas-divides-republicans-2023842" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recoiled at the thought</a> of Hollywood’s progressive values inundating the state.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller put the brakes on the plan via X. He’s all for Texas-based productions but <a href="https://x.com/MillerForTexas/status/1884987688182268146" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opposes tax rebates to make it possible</a>.
Hollywood is dying. Productions can&#8217;t get out of California fast enough. Texas will benefit without subsidizing the folks that brought us woke, anti-Christian bigotry, socialism, transgenderism, etc.
Hollywood diehards may resist the Texas two-step. Loyalists could prefer to bring production back to La La Land, especially to help those impacted by the wildfires. Others may rebuke red-state values infecting their progressive industry.
Pragmatism may rule the day. If major stars like Quaid, McConaughey and Zellweger want more Texas-based shoots, and the costs aren’t prohibitive, we may be hearing, “Action!” more and more in the Lone Star State.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Clemson v Texas – Playoff First Round

‘A Whole New Hub’: Movie Stars Stump For Filming Deep In The Heart Of Texas

'A Whole New Hub': Movie Stars Stump For Filming Deep In The Heart Of Texas

Matthew McConaughey

Texas

Woody Harrelson

David Lynch, the writer-director whose hallucinogenic films and television shows such as “Eraserhead,” “Mulholland Drive,” and “Twin Peaks” reveled in dreams and darkness, in revealing the mysterious and the sinister teeming just below the surface of ordinary white-picket-fence America has died. He was 78.
New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael called David Lynch “the first populist surrealist — a Frank Capra of dream logic” for his keen ability to bridge mainstream filmmaking and arthouse success. 
Lynch’s family <a href="https://www.facebook.com/davidlynchofficial/posts/pfbid04LuZED6SrWevszQ1UZoEED6x95znKc7scJxXFL5B1icBKgCiu4T2qYLHsErFNzELl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> his death on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/davidlynchofficial/posts/pfbid04LuZED6SrWevszQ1UZoEED6x95znKc7scJxXFL5B1icBKgCiu4T2qYLHsErFNzELl?rdid=581XjlBlb3GqM8zP#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">his Facebook page</a> on Thursday. “There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us,” they wrote. “But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.’ It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”
<div id="attachment_860901" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-860901" class="size-large wp-image-860901" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-52974879-865x576.jpg" alt="LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 01: Filmmaker David Lynch poses for photos in his private movie studio on September 1, 2004 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Gilles Mingasson/Gettty Images)" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-52974879-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-52974879-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-52974879-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-52974879.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" />Gilles Mingasson/Getty Images</div>
Lynch revealed in an interview with <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/news/sight-sound-september-2024-issue" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sight and Sound</a> in 2024, that he was suffering from emphysema after many years of smoking, was housebound, and could only direct any future films remotely. He later posted <a href="https://x.com/DAVID_LYNCH/status/1820561669216686367/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a statement</a> on X amid speculation about his health and career, writing, “I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire.”
Lynch’s smoking habit was almost literally lifelong. A native of Missoula, Montana, Lynch grew up in rural Idaho and Washington and began smoking at the age of 8. He stopped smoking in 2022 after needing supplemental oxygen for anything more difficult than walking across a room and in an interview with <a href="https://people.com/david-lynch-smoking-at-age-8-now-he-needs-oxygen-copd-exclusive-8743594" target="_blank" rel="noopener">People Magazine</a> last year, Lynch said although the consequences of smoking have been “a big price to pay, I don’t regret it. It was important to me. I wish what every addict wishes for: that what we love is good for us.”
A painter turned avant-garde filmmaker, Lynch debuted his first feature “Eraserhead” in 1977. Shot over several years, the black-and-white surrealist horror film tells the story of a bewildered man grappling with the anxieties of fatherhood after the birth of his sickly, grotesque child—a mutant being that scarcely resembles a human infant. 
Initially debuting to limited fanfare, “Eraserhead” gradually built a devoted following through extended runs as a midnight movie, solidifying its status as a cult classic.
Released three years before Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic “The Shining,” “Eraserhead” left an indelible mark on the influential director, who cited Lynch’s debut feature as one of his favorite films. So captivated was Kubrick by Lynch’s unnerving vision that he required his actors and film crew to watch “Eraserhead” before filming started on “The Shining” so that everyone on set was on the same tonal page. 
Another enthusiastic fan was comedian Mel Brooks, who, after seeing “Eraserhead,” hired Lynch to direct his first true Hollywood picture, “The Elephant Man” in 1980. Brooks called Lynch “Jimmy Stewart from Mars,” for his spectrum of wild ideas and dressing as if he had stepped right out of the 1950s, with a messy pompadour and simple outfits of slacks and white dress shirts worn without a tie, buttoned all the way to the top.
<div id="attachment_860893" style="width: 866px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-860893" class="size-large wp-image-860893" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-451084295-856x576.jpg" alt="Actor John Hurt in a scene from the film 'The Elephant Man', 1980. (Photo by Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty Images)" width="856" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-451084295-856x576.jpg 856w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-451084295-300x202.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-451084295-768x517.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-451084295.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 856px) 100vw, 856px" />&#8216;The Elephant Man&#8217;, 1980. (Photo by Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty Images)</div>
“The Elephant Man” proved to be Lynch’s mainstream breakthrough. A poignant film (also in black-and-white) starring Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt, and based on the true story of a severely deformed British man, the movie garnered widespread acclaim and became a hit at the box office.  It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including two for Lynch.
Lynch’s films were not always successful, however, or well received. After receiving several directing offers post “Elephant Man” and turning down an opportunity from George Lucas to direct “Return of the Jedi,” Lynch opted instead to make an adaptation of the space opera “Dune” from the science-fiction novel by Frank Herbert. The attempt to make a ‘Star Wars for adults’ was a $40 million fiasco and the movie was named by Roger Ebert as the worst of 1984. Plans for two sequels were quickly scrapped.
Lynch roared back in 1986 with his one of his signature movies, “Blue Velvet,” an erotic detective story that peels back the placid exterior of a sweet-as-cherry-pie small town in North Carolina to reveal a seething underworld of dark surreal violence and depravity.
<div id="attachment_860885" style="width: 752px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-860885" class="size-large wp-image-860885" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-110866344-742x576.jpg" alt="LAS VEGAS, NV - FEBRUARY 24: Director David Lynch and Isabella Rossellini attend ShoWest Convention on February 24, 1988 at Bally's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)" width="742" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-110866344-742x576.jpg 742w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-110866344-300x233.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-110866344-768x596.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-110866344.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 742px) 100vw, 742px" />Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images</div>
The movie plays as if directed by a psychopathic Norman Rockwell and polarized critics for its unsettling blend of innocence and white-picket-fence whimsy, brimming over with sexual violence and perverse evil. 
Mr. Lynch’s follow-up, the highly controversial albeit forgettable, “Wild at Heart,” a sexed-up, graphically violent road movie starring Laura Dern and Nicolas Cage as a young couple on the run in the American Southwest, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1990. It struck many critics as erratic, cartoony, self-indulgent and, despite some inspired moments, pointless.
In 1990, Lynch with co-creator Mark Frost ushered in a network TV revolution with their cutting-edge series, “Twin Peaks.” The show is an eerie mystery drama about the murder of high school student Laura Palmer and the investigation by an eccentric FBI agent played by Kyle MacLachlan. It is the spiritual spinoff of “Blue Velvet” with Lynch again illuminating the sinister underbelly of Apple Pie America, pitting ordinary good people against depraved and supernatural evil — Andy Griffith vs. Charles Manson — in perhaps Lynch’s most popular work.
<div id="attachment_860889" style="width: 849px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-860889" class="size-large wp-image-860889" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-139467895-839x576.jpg" alt="TWIN PEAKS - Pilot - &quot;Northwest Passage&quot; - Airdate: April 8, 1990. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)PRODUCTION SHOT OF KYLE MACLACHLAN, MICHAEL ONTKEAN AND DAVID LYNCH" width="839" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-139467895-839x576.jpg 839w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-139467895-300x206.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-139467895-768x527.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-139467895.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 839px) 100vw, 839px" />TWIN PEAKS &#8211; Pilot &#8211; &#8220;Northwest Passage&#8221; &#8211; Airdate: April 8, 1990. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)</div>
After 1991, however, it seemed as though Lynch could do nothing right. Viewership for season two of “Twin Peaks” fell off a cliff after the ABC Network insisted on an early season reveal of Laura Palmer’s killer and as Lynch himself seemed to lose interest in the show. Throughout the early 90s, he continued to produce multiple TV shows that were unsuccessful and disappeared from television almost immediately.
Lynch then made “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” a 1992 film companion to the television series, which was ravaged by critics, with Vincent Canby of the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/29/movies/review-film-one-long-last-gasp-for-laura-palmer.html">writing</a>, “It’s not the worst movie ever made; it just seems to be.”
Lynch’s lackluster 1997 neo-noir thriller “Lost Highway” a few years later didn’t fare much better.
A turn came in 1998 when Lynch improbably took on the challenge of directing a G-rated Disney movie and created what he called “my most experimental movie”, saying “Tenderness can be just as abstract as insanity.”
“The Straight Story” is a one of Lynch’s finest films. Based on the true story of 73-year-old Alvin Straight, who in 1994 rode his lawnmower more than 300 miles from Iowa to Wisconsin to reconcile with his ailing and estranged brother. It is a profoundly spiritual film about family, forgiveness and healing that celebrates America and the simple, unsentimentalized beauty of the rural Midwest. Perhaps the least likely to do it, Lynch shows the flip side of &#8220;Blue Velvet&#8221; and reframes America’s heartland as wholesome and its people as good and caring and true in a supremely moving triumph.
<div id="attachment_860895" style="width: 892px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-860895" class="size-large wp-image-860895" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-543905970-882x576.jpg" alt="American director David Lynch (C) and actor Richard Farnsworth (R) on set of the film The Straight Story. (Photo by CHRISTOPHE D YVOIRE/Sygma via Getty Images)" width="882" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-543905970-882x576.jpg 882w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-543905970-300x196.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-543905970-768x502.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-543905970.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 882px) 100vw, 882px" />The Straight Story. (Photo by CHRISTOPHE D YVOIRE/Sygma via Getty Images)</div>
Then came “Mulholland Drive,” Lynch’s much-heralded masterpiece regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, a poison-pen letter to Hollywood wrapped in Nancy Drew mystery.
That the movie became anything was something of a miracle itself, having started as yet another TV series that was killed by ABC. The pilot was filmed in 1999 and a year and a half later, Lynch cobbled together the original cast, shot additional footage and rounded out his twisted plot.
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Lynch again used his favorite film structure, a mystery and an investigation. “Mulholland Drive” follows a budding actress who’s just arrived in Los Angeles as she forms a friendship with another young woman, who has become an amnesiac following a horrific car accident that left her for dead. The two women attempt to learn about the amnesiac’s mysterious past, leading them into an ever-stranger world of mobsters, actors, cops, singers and filmmakers.
In this, his most artistically and philosophically complex work, Lynch portrays “the Hollywood golden dream turning rancid, curdling into a poisonous stew of hatred, envy, sleazy compromise and soul-killing failure. This is the underbelly of our glamorous fantasies”, as Michael Wilmington wrote in the Chicago Tribune.
Following “Mulholland Drive,” Lynch’s filmic output sputtered in the final decades of his life and seemed to halt for lengthy stretches following his descent into near self-parody with his enigmatic last feature, “Inland Empire.” In 2017, he revived the “Twin Peaks” franchise with a baffling yet acclaimed season 3 for Showtime, which he described as an 18-hour movie.
<div id="attachment_860915" style="width: 722px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-860915" class="size-large wp-image-860915" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-139424230-712x576.jpg" alt="TWIN PEAKS - Gallery - Shoot Date: March 22, 1990. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)DAVID LYNCH" width="712" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-139424230-712x576.jpg 712w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-139424230-300x243.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-139424230-768x621.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-139424230.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 712px) 100vw, 712px" />March 22, 1990. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)</div>
After that, Lynch then largely devoted himself to his paintings, his comic strip, his coffee-making business and transcendental meditation, the Buddhist practice he first embraced in his late 20s. He continued to frequent and praise the restaurant Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank, California.
It is now very quiet out in David Lynch land and all the dreams have floated off into the dark. The dancing dwarfs are idle and The Log Lady no longer shares clairvoyant visions transmitted by The Log. David Lynch has crossed over the River Styx. Requiescat in pace.
* * *
Matt Kemp is the Director of Post-Production at The Daily Wire.

Black and White Celebrity Photography By Chris Weeks

David Lynch, Visionary Filmmaker And Creator Of ‘Twin Peaks,’ Dead At 78

David Lynch, Visionary Filmmaker And Creator Of ‘Twin Peaks’, Dead At 78

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The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/artificial-intelligence">artificial intelligence</a> (AI) startup Runway announced that it is offering grants of up to $1 million for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/movies">filmmakers</a> willing to use the technology on future <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment">projects</a>.
It’s all part of their newly created “The Hundred Film Fund,” per <a href="https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/runway-hundred-film-fund-filmmakers-artificial-intelligence-1236154376/">Variety</a>, which was created to help fund both short and feature-length films. The company noted that grants would range from $5,000 to $1 million and that applications would be processed and responded to within 14 days of submission.
Runway also doesn’t require applicants to use its software, only that they use AI for their work. Any approved filmmakers using AI will be offered up to $2 million in credits to use Runway’s AI program, however.
Runway co-founder and CEO Cris Valenzuela told Variety there isn’t a catch to this offer. “This is not about getting our money back,” he told the outlet, insisting that the grants are simply meant to serve as incentives for filmmakers to embrace AI for their work. The Runway founder also mentioned that the company would not retain rights to any film projects produced with their grants.
“We’re a software company. Our business is to sell tools,” Valenzuela said. “Our success will be rooted in our ability to help storytellers make these films.” 
“We believe that the best stories are yet to be told, and that traditional funding mechanisms often overlook these new visions,” the Runway exec added, saying that there was no set amount of money the company was giving out and that submissions would be on a rolling basis.
All pitches will be evaluated by a team of individuals representing the tech and entertainment industry. Those include Tribeca Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal, Nvidia VP Richard Kerris, recording artist and entrepreneur will.i.am, film colorist and Company 3 founder Stefan Sonnenfeld, and Asher XR CEO Christina Lee Storm. The outlet noted that Kerris and will.i.am are both investors in Runway.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1726313279401000&amp;usg=AOvVaw115_qPFFEePDP86-Fvo-Vd">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a>
The AI company recently made headlines for being the first to sign with a major studio, Lionsgate, to use its proprietary software to comb the studio’s library and help facilitate future projects, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lionsgate-signs-deal-with-ai-company-to-help-creators-augment-their-work">reported</a>. 
At the time, Runway stressed the collaborative nature of the deal, using the word “augment” rather than selling itself as a replacement for creative work. 
“We’re committed to giving artists, creators and studios the best and most powerful tools to augment their workflows and enable new ways of bringing their stories to life,” Valenzuela said.
“The history of art is the history of technology and these new models are part of our continuous efforts to build transformative mediums for artistic and creative expression. The best stories are yet to be told,” he added. “Lionsgate has an incredible creative team and a clear vision for how AI can help their work — we’re excited to help bring their ideas to life.”

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Film director Oliver Stone defended former President Donald Trump in an interview that was published over the weekend against the criminal trials that he faces.
Speaking with Variety, Stone, who is a staunch opponent of the former president, <a href="https://variety.com/2024/film/news/oliver-stone-cannes-documentary-lula-donald-trump-trials-hugo-chavez-1236008565/">compared</a> the trials that Trump faces with the trials that other world leaders face.
&#8220;The charges on both sides of the Trump-Biden election are pretty wild,&#8221; Stone said. &#8220;It’s a new form of warfare. It’s called lawfare. And that’s what they’re using against Trump. And I think there’s interesting parallels here in America, as well as all over the world, you’re seeing this kind of behavior. [Trump’s] got four trials and some of these charges, whether you’re for him or against him, they are minor.&#8221;
The interviewer said that when Stone started talking about Trump, a publicist for Stone&#8217;s new documentary, &#8220;Lula,&#8221; which is about Brazil&#8217;s far-left president, tried to get Stone to talk about something else, but Stone waved him off.
He later suggested that the U.S. needs to reform its election systems and political systems to be more like Europe so that there are more parties to choose from instead of it always being just two political parties clashing.
“If you’re a poor man or a middle-class man it’s very hard to run for office in the United States, unless you have money and corporate sponsors,&#8221; he later added. &#8220;Money controls politics in the United States. If you go to European countries, you’ll find that their elections are very mandated. The British elections are very low cost, or they used to be until recently. In France, they have election rules. And we need that in the United States. Let’s get the money out of the politics.”
&#8220;Look at the [two] parties,&#8221; he later added. &#8220;We should be multi-party and we should have public money in politics like they do in Poland. Or look at the English and the French models.”

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