What We Know About the Pawn Shop Film Shoot in Montana

Gunfire echoed down Main Street in Livingston, Montana, this month as film crews shot a scene for the Daily Wire movie "Pawn Shop." Residents watching from sidewalks said the staged chaos looked less like a movie set and more like a memory: the January killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent, according to The Guardian.

What is Pawn Shop, and who is making it?

"Pawn Shop" is an upcoming film from the Daily Wire, the conservative media company co-founded by Ben Shapiro, according to The Guardian. The project reportedly stars Danny Trejo and Harvey Keitel. Its logline describes an ICE agent trying to escape an angry mob after detaining an immigrant.

What happened during filming in Livingston?

Production moved into the rural Montana town earlier this month, closing streets for shooting, The Guardian reported. In one scene captured on video and posted online, an actor playing a protester drives a damaged car into a group of law enforcement agents, knocking one down, while another officer fires his weapon before the car lurches backward.

Why did residents compare it to Renee Good's death?

Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in January 2026, according to The Guardian. The filmed sequence's resemblance to that shooting drew both online backlash and real protesters to the set, the paper reported.

At a Livingston city commission meeting last week, residents raised separate complaints: little advance public notice, street closures blocking access to a food pantry, and the unsettling sound of simulated gunfire downtown.

"A production can hijack our downtown with hired guns and re-enact mob beatings while blocking the entrance to a beloved non-profit," Livingston resident Bex Frucht told the commission, according to The Guardian. "They are simulating a highly controversial murder in our streets."

Did the city pull the filming permit?

Yes, temporarily. Livingston officials revoked Pawn Shop's filming permit amid the outcry, then reinstated it with new conditions covering noise levels and depictions of violence, The Guardian reported. The production has continued filming under those revised terms.

What has the Daily Wire said in response?

Shapiro criticized the city commission's handling of the dispute, accusing it of deferring to what he called "radical leftwing protesters," according to The Guardian. The Daily Wire has not detailed further changes to the production beyond the city's new permit conditions.

Key dates in the Livingston dispute

• January 2026: Renee Good is fatally shot by an ICE agent, per The Guardian.
• Early October 2026: Pawn Shop filming begins in Livingston; the city's permit is briefly revoked after resident complaints before being reinstated with new noise and violence rules.
• Last week (early October 2026): Residents address the Livingston city commission directly, including Bex Frucht's remarks on the production's downtown street closures and content.

What happens next in Livingston depends on whether the production stays within the commission's revised permit terms — and whether the scenes still playing out downtown keep drawing comparisons to the shooting that unsettled the town in the first place.