The Daily Wire’s First Original Movie Is Black List Thriller ‘Shut In’ With ‘xXx’ & ‘Disturbia’ Director D.J. Caruso

Andreas Wiseman
·3 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Conservative media company The Daily Wire, which continues to ramp up its film and TV ambitions, wrapped production last weekend on its first ‘Original’ feature, Black List and BloodList thriller Shut In.

The movie, whose production has been kept quiet to date, is directed by xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage and Disturbia director D.J. Caruso and stars actress and singer Rainey Qualley (Love In The Time Of Corona), sister of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood actress Margaret Qualley.

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Pic centers on a young single mother (Qualley) who is held captive along with her two children by a violent ex as she plots their escape before it’s too late. Caruso filmed the movie around Nashville and Watertown, Tennessee. Above is a first look image.

Producers are Dallas Sonnier (Bone Tomahawk) and Amanda Presmyk (Run Hide Fight) of Bonfire Legend, who acquired the film’s script in 2018 from screenwriter Melanie Toast.

Shut In first came to attention as a touted 2019 Black List script, also topping the BloodList in the same year. The movie was initially set up at New Line with Jason Bateman aboard to direct. After a period of stasis the option expired and Sonnier took it over to The Daily Wire, marking their third collaboration.

Pic is being executive-produced by Daily Wire co-founders Ben Shapiro, Jeremy Boreing, and Caleb Robinson, and will be available in the U.S. exclusively to the site’s members beginning in January 2022, with plans for an international launch thereafter.

In January of this year we revealed The Daily Wire‘s first foray into entertainment with the acquisition of Kyle Rankin’s Venice Film Festival title Run Hide Fight from Bonfire Legend. The right-wing site claims the film drew 300,000 viewers during its live premiere. Earlier this month, we revealed details about the media company’s upcoming movie with former Mandalorian actress Gina Carano, a revenge-thriller scripted by The Hitcher writer Eric Red. That project is due to shoot in October ahead of an estimated Q1, 2022 release.

The firm is seemingly serious about ramping up its film and TV slate. To get Caruso onto their first film is a coup.

The filmmaker told us: “I was excited to direct a fiercely independent film from a brilliant script by Melanie Toast that seeped into my creative DNA back in 2019, when I had first read it. I was given the creative freedom to craft a film that features a flawed, but graceful character that must fight addiction, and dire circumstances to find light in a very dark place.”

Caruso is also in post on Universal Pictures period romance Redeeming Love with Abigail Cowen.

Qualley, who made her screen debut alongside mother Andie MacDowell in 2012 film Mighty Fine, is also in production on movie The Latin From Manhattan with Vivian Lamolli, Esai Morales, Drea De Matteo, Taryn Manning and Jesse Metcalf.

Caruso is repped by CAA and Media Talent Group. Qualley is repped by ICM and Management Production Entertainment. Toast is repped by UTA.

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