A picket line has popped up on the South Carolina set of Jonathan Majors’ upcoming untitled action film from The Daily Wire and Dallas Sonnier’s Bonfire Legend after crew walked off the job late last week.
IATSE called a strike against the Gaffney, SC, production over a series of labor issues, we hear.
It is unclear where production currently stands, though we hear that filming continues in some capacity despite the picket line. The companies are actively seeking to replace striking crew. The union is, of course, discouraging others from taking the job.
The film is written and directed by Kyle Rankin (Run Hide Fight). While the title and the plot are under wraps, we understand the story is said to be in the vein of ’80s and ’90s action movies like Red Dawn and Toy Soldiers, which were both about groups of teenage boys who had to band together to defeat invading enemies.
Majors is starring in the film and executive producing, but this is really an issue for Ben Shapiro and Sonnier, who are producing for The Daily Wire and Bonfire Legend, respectively.
This strike doesn’t appear to be a huge concern for the production, though.
In a statement to Deadline on Thursday, Sonnier said: “We are too busy being bad asses, blowing sh*t up, flying helicopters, and killing movie terrorists to concern ourselves with four assholes with signs on the sidewalk and their illegitimate ‘strike.’”
Additional producers on the untitled project include Caleb Robinson and Mike Richards, Jason Ramos, Travis Mills, Lillian Campbell, and Sydney Aucreman. Kristopher Kimlin (Young Washington) is cinematographer, and David Guglielmo (The Standoff At Sparrow Creek) is handling casting. Vincent Reynaud (Kandahar) is on board as the production designer.
The movie reunites The Daily Wire and Bonfire Legend with Rankin who wrote and directed their film Run Hide Fight, which starred Isabel May and Thomas Jane, and premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2020.
The untitled film marks Majors’ first movie in four years after he was dropped from numerous projects when found guilty in 2023 of assaulting his former girlfriend. The actor has been rebuilding since then and is also attached to star in the supernatural revenge thriller Merciless from Martin Villeneuve, which we first announced in summer 2024.
Prior to the conviction, the actor had been on a massive career trajectory with starring roles in heavy hitters like The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Creed III, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Magazine Dreams.
The Daily Wire and Bonfire Legend have not shied away from opportunities to help resuscitate the careers of ‘cancelled’ actors. The conservative media brands, which are coming off their biggest project to date in TV series The Pendragon Cycle, also gave comeback movie roles to Armie Hammer and Gina Carano after her exit from The Mandalorian.
