Gina Carano Announces First Film Project with Daily Wire

Disney fired Gina Carano for her political views. She had tweeted a few things others found offensive in what is a fairly standard cancel culture moment. People on Twitter freak out, storm the gates, corporations buckle. Well, over at the Daily Wire they decided to uncancel Carano by signing her up for an exclusive movie deal where she would produce her own films. Despite how my readers feel about Ben Shapiro (and the left in general) this is fairly badass. The only way out of a bottleneck is competition.

If entertainment is going to be under the thumb of Big Corporate then that is going to significantly narrow what kinds of films can be made, who can star in them, etc. Studios now hold less power than Big Tech, so does the government. And, if they are going to censor and ban people to suit their own agendas – whatever they may be – the only way to fight them is to build things outside the system. This is already happening in journalism, with Substack being the one site that will stand up for its writers against the cancellation machine. There are alternatives to YouTube in the fledgling stage. While it’s true that big sites still control the vast majority of eyeballs, there is some hope that competition will help loosen the strings a little.

When I first heard that Daily Wire was going to branch out to distribution and production to challenge the more left-leaning studio system, such as it is now, I knew there would be people out there tempted to join them just to get work that isn’t heavily monitored by the thought police. But I also know that the Daily Wire is a conservative site – and I would imagine that would be a deal-breaker for many of them, feeling they might risk their “liberal cred” and as we know, that can end careers, friendships, reputations. Ah, the tolerant left. But I also thought it would be great if other people thought outside the box like this. One thing streaming has done is make it much easier to produce and deliver films, especially if you have your own audience, as the Daily Wire does. Their podcasts and YouTube shows are watched and listened to by millions.

Of course, they will be treated fairly badly by the press. We can call this the Hillbilly Elegy effect. When they first distributed Run Hide Fight because Hollywood refused to,  there was an idea that it was an NRA propaganda movie. It turned out to be no such thing. I would imagine that the press, Hollywood, and Twitter will treat any movie coming out of there the same way. I would suggest keeping an open mind on that score and remembering that it isn’t the job of art, or the press, to take a partisan view. It isn’t the job of art to back up a specific political ideology. Of course, we know that they do. But we somehow managed to survive for decades with movies that were made to entertain people across all spectrums. Competition like this will open things up – and that is what we want right now, believe me.

Here is what Megan Basham writes of the new project:

Six months after leaving the hit Disney Plus series “The Mandalorian,” actress Gina Carano is announcing her first project — an action thriller for The Daily Wire reminiscent of classics like “True Grit,” “Duel,” and “Breakdown.”

Screenwriter and veteran horror writer Eric Red (“The Hitcher,” “Near Dark”) is basing the script on his novel “White Knuckle,” a story about a long-haul truck-driver who crosses the country murdering women. Carano will star as the one woman who managed to escape him. Traumatized, but haunted by the thought of his future victims, she hires another trucker to help her track him down and end his killing spree.

Dallas Sonnier and Amanda Presmyk of Bonfire Legend will join Carano in producing the film, along with horror author Tony Timpone. Voltage Pictures will handle international distribution.

In an exclusive comment to The Daily Wire, Carano said that she’s eager to get moving on the next stage of her career that now includes working behind the camera.

Full story here.