Harvey Keitel, Danny Trejo and Henry Thomas Lead Ben Shapiro's Pro-ICE ‘Pawn Shop’

Ben Shapiro is at it again in his quest to conquer cinema. The Daily Wire's next film has started production in Montana, and if the goal was to grab headlines, mission accomplished.

The film is called "Pawn Shop," a pro-ICE thriller that has already drawn local protestors in Livingston, Montana. It comes from Shapiro and producer Dallas Sonnier and follows "Run Hide Fight: Infidels," starring Jonathan Majors, which also drew protests during production. At this point, protesters might as well be part of the Daily Wire crew.

Now here's the part not many have zeroed in on: the cast. Apparently, the three leads are Harvey Keitel, Danny Trejo and Henry Thomas. That's Mr. White from "Reservoir Dogs," Machete himself, and Elliott from "E.T." — a kid who hid an undocumented alien from federal agents. So this checks out.

The director is Michael Polish ("Twin Falls Idaho"), and the script comes from Jake Harlen, who doesn't seem to have an IMDb page.

Here's the official synopsis:

When chaos hits the streets of Minneapolis, a young federal agent is left alone after his partner is seriously hurt and must find a way to survive an increasingly dangerous situation. Seeking shelter inside a neighborhood pawn shop, he becomes trapped with a traditional Hispanic father and his progressive college-age son, forcing three very different men to confront fear, conflicting beliefs and a crisis that tests their courage and humanity.

What's more, the film's opening scene has been revealed through a leaked script, and there's no hiding the inspiration. The sequence dramatizes the fatal ICE shooting of Renée Good in Minnesota this past January. Harlen's script describes Good's stand-in, a character named Melanie, as "a fat blue-hair." It then lingers on the killing: "The first shot takes Melanie in the neck, below her covid mask. The second in the head, above her covid mask." It goes on to describe blood splattering onto her passenger's forehead and "matching covid mask."

Shapiro has spent years complaining that Hollywood won't make movies for conservatives. This is one way to fix that.

While we're at it, and as previously reported, Shapiro isn't done with his quest. He's going arthouse, having written the screenplay for "Confession," the new film from "The Painted Bird" director Václav Marhoul. The 1938 Moscow interrogation drama, starring Rob Lowe, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte, Emile Hirsch and James Franco, world premieres this month at the Warsaw Film Festival.