Montana town suspends, then restores, filming permit for Daily Wire's ICE-themed movie

The city commission in Livingston, Montana, voted unanimously on Monday to reinstate a street-use filming permit for "Pawn Shop," a movie produced by Ben Shapiro's media company The Daily Wire, three days after the same commission had voted unanimously to suspend it. The reversal followed a nearly seven-hour public hearing and came with new restrictions on the production, after residents said two weeks of filming had closed streets, deployed armed private security near homes, and cut into access to the town's only food pantry.

The permit, originally approved by the city manager on Sept. 21, covers location filming in residential blocks of Livingston, a town of roughly 8,000 people in south-central Montana. "Pawn Shop" stars Harvey Keitel, Danny Trejo and Henry Thomas, is directed by Michael Polish, and is produced jointly by The Daily Wire and Bonfire Legend, under the production entity Bonfire Pawn Shop LLC, with Dallas Sonnier producing.

Two emergency votes in three days

City records show the commission took up the dispute in two special sessions: an October 3 special meeting whose sole action item was a "discussion of street closures," followed by an October 5 special meeting agenda whose single action item was a "public hearing regarding temporary suspension of film permit for Bonfire Pawn Shop LLC." According to reporting from Montana Free Press, the Saturday suspension followed complaints about inadequate public notice, the use of blanks and staged explosions near homes, heavily armed security that residents said was intimidating, and restricted access to the Livingston Food Resource Center, where attendance reportedly fell to an 18-week low during the disruption. The Monday hearing drew more than 120 people in person and roughly 150 more watching online, according to local coverage from KTVQ, running from 5 p.m. to nearly midnight before commissioners voted to let filming continue.

The reinstated permit came with added conditions, among them:

• Screening violent or disturbing scenes from public view, including with temporary fabric barriers
• Guaranteeing uninterrupted access to the Livingston Food Resource Center for pantry clients
• Additional advance notice to residents on affected blocks
• Continued compliance with the production's original permit terms, including insurance and prior canvassing of the neighborhood

City Attorney Jon Hesse told commissioners the dispute was "not including anything regarding the nature of this film, the content, or anything" political, framing the suspension as a safety and permitting matter rather than a judgment on the movie's subject matter, per KTVQ's account of the hearing.

"I don't have any ability to make a movie stop filming because somebody doesn't like the subject matter." — Livingston Vice Chair James Willich

A fictional siege built around a real shooting

"Pawn Shop" follows a federal immigration enforcement agent caught in a siege alongside armed shopkeepers, protesters and criminals. According to Cowboy State Daily's account of the leaked script, the screenplay draws loosely on the January 2026 fatal shooting of Renée Good, a Minneapolis woman killed by an ICE agent as she tried to drive away during an enforcement operation, reworking the episode into a fictionalized confrontation. The Daily Wire's own account of the production describes the film more generally as the story of "an ICE agent who comes under fire while arresting a criminal illegal immigrant," and does not address the Good case by name.

The film is one of several politically themed projects The Daily Wire has backed as it has expanded from a conservative media and commentary outlet into film and television production. Shapiro has framed the Livingston dispute as part of a broader pattern of resistance to the company's output.

Who felt the disruption, and who pushed back

The most immediate effects fell on Livingston residents living on the blocks where filming took place, food-pantry clients who found access curtailed, and nearby small businesses. Resident Yetta Stein argued the production's economic benefit did not outweigh the disruption, saying, "A brief economic boon is not worth the safety of my neighbors," while business owner Taylor Wallace said, "Nobody should feel unsafe in their workplace or at their home." Local actor Quenby Iandiorio, who said she found the script itself objectionable, told reporters, "For me, the content's abominable. It is absolutely deplorable to me."

Producer Dallas Sonnier defended the production's conduct, telling local media, "Government cannot suppress lawful expression simply because an audience objects to its message." A production spokesperson added, per KTVQ, "We paid the city's invoice. We carried the required insurance, canvassed the blocks, and posted the notices."

Shapiro was more combative in his own commentary, writing on The Daily Wire's site that the suspension amounted to a "heckler's veto" and telling reporters, "There's only one reason the city commissioners ruled they were going to stop our production on the street: politics, pure and simple, and they pretty much admitted it." He also said, "That's a violation of the First Amendment. Viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple," and argued the opposition to the shoot proved the production's success: "The only reason they're trying to stop us is because we're winning."

What happens next

Filming resumed in Livingston on Tuesday morning under the new conditions and was scheduled to wrap by Saturday, according to Deadline's coverage of Shapiro's statement. No distributor or release date for "Pawn Shop" has been announced. The Daily Wire has continued to publicize the episode as a free-speech victory, while local Montana station coverage of the reinstatement suggests city officials consider the matter closed so long as the production honors the amended permit through the end of the week.