Daily Wire executives announced Tuesday they are expanding their original film division following the successful contractual entrapment of veteran actor Danny Trejo. The conservative media company confirmed that aggressively omitting co-founder Ben Shapiro’s name during initial negotiations has become their most reliable pipeline for securing recognizable Hollywood stars.
Daily Wire executives announced Tuesday they are expanding their original film division following the successful contractual entrapment of veteran actor Danny Trejo. The conservative media company confirmed that aggressively omitting co-founder Ben Shapiro’s name during initial negotiations has become their most reliable pipeline for securing recognizable Hollywood stars.
Trejo, who is currently handcuffed to the pro-ICE thriller Pawn Shop despite his management confirming he had never heard of the political commentator, is being touted across the industry as a triumph of modern dealmaking. According to internal tracking, the studio successfully bypassed Trejo’s representation by burying the project's ideological agenda deep beneath a standard pay-or-play guarantee and a favorable trailer placement rider.
If you put the words 'Ben Shapiro' on a script cover, your talent pool is immediately limited to Dean Cain and whoever was eliminated first on the current season of Dancing with the Stars. But if you just offer a legendary character actor his standard upfront quote and promise he gets to hold a shotgun, he'll sign the deal memo before his kids can warn him about the producer's podcast.
The studio’s aggressive new packaging strategy has sent shockwaves through major agencies. In response to the Pawn Shop ambush, CAA and WME are reportedly drafting emergency updates to their boilerplate contracts, requiring all incoming indie offers to legally declare if a right-wing pundit is waiting on set. Meanwhile, Trejo's ironclad non-disparagement clause ensures the 80-year-old actor must actively smile through the film's press tour, a legal maneuver analysts project will save the studio millions in traditional marketing.
At press time, Daily Wire was reportedly in late-stage talks to secure a highly sought-after director for their next feature by routing the offer sheet through a shell company named A25.