Armie Hammer's Comeback: Musk's Culture War Bet

Becca HartwellWelcome back to Star Witness. I'm Becca.

MilesAnd I...

Speaker 3And I'm Miles. And Becca, this one's a doozy.

Becca HartwellOkay, so get this. Elon Musk posts a banned film to 240 million followers on X, and within about 48 hours, it's the number one seller on Apple and Amazon.

Speaker 3For a movie Germany wouldn't even give a rating to.

Becca HartwellWow.

Speaker 3That's not nothing.

Becca HartwellRight? We're talking about Armie Hammer's Citizen Vigilante.

Speaker 3The same Armie Hammer who basically disappeared after 2021. one.

Becca HartwellAnd reportedly spent years working as a sober companion just to get by.

Speaker 3So how does that guy end up headlining the movie Elon Musk decides to champion?

Becca HartwellPlot twist, word is Hammer privately hated what he made.

Speaker 3After reportedly taking a quarter million dollar payday, sure, you'd be surprised how often that happens.

Becca HartwellWe're getting into that fight today, I promise.

Speaker 3We're also tracing how a small German indie nobody wanted. Wanted turned into a worldwide distribution deal and a sequel tease in a matter of days.

Becca HartwellAnd whether banning it is actually what made it a hit.

Speaker 3Big questions. Let's start where this all kicked off: Elon hitting post.

Becca HartwellOkay, so Friday night I'm scrolling and Elon Musk just drops an entire movie on his own X account for free, right?

Speaker 3Hold on, before we even get to the movie, can we sit with a number for a second? 240 million followers. That's not a movie release. That's a broadcast bigger than most cable networks will ever hit in a decade.

Becca HartwellAnd it wasn't some clip, Miles. Variety reported the f***. The full film was live on his account for about 48 hours before it just went dark Saturday.

Speaker 348 hours, then poof, like it was never there.

Becca HartwellPoof. So, plot twist, the movie itself is Citizen Vigilante, and it stars Armie Hammer as an American businessman who turns vigilante hunting quote-unquote criminal migrants in Croatia.

Speaker 3Yeah, that premise alone should tell you why this got complicated fast. FAST.

Becca HartwellOh, it gets more complicated; Variety also noted the film was banned outright in Germany before Musk ever touched it for depicting extreme violence and being anti migrant.

Speaker 3Wait, banned as in actually pulled by a government ratings board?

Becca HartwellBanned, full stop, and then Musk just hands it to a quarter billion people anyway.

Speaker 3The market doesn't care about a German ratings board apparently. Definitely.

Becca HartwellNo kidding; and get this, World of Real reported the film climbed straight to number one on both the Apple TV Store and Amazon Prime right after Musk's post.

Speaker 3Number one on both.

Becca HartwellOn both, a banned movie number one on both storefronts, powered entirely by one guy's timeline.

Speaker 3Which, okay, we talked about Armie Hammer's slow crawl back into public life if you have a Two episodes ago, this feels like the same guy suddenly strapped to a rocket he didn't build.

Becca HartwellRight; and that's what's nagging at me. This isn't a comeback any one voted for with a ticket stub.

Speaker 3It's a comeback manufactured by one man's algorithm and his follower count.

Becca HartwellSo how does an actor go from Hollywood's blacklist to starring in a banned movie he apparently needed badly enough to say yes to?

Speaker 3That's the real question, isn't it? What does someone have to lose before a script like this looks like the only option left?

Becca HartwellSo building on that desperation angle, rewind to 2021 for a second.

Speaker 3Oh man, when everything collapsed almost overnight. Leaked messages, sexual assault allegations, WME cutting him loose within days.

Becca HartwellAnd L.A. prosecutors actually investigated. Two years later, in 2023, they declined to file charges.

Speaker 3Two years just hanging in limbo.

Becca HartwellNo charges, but also no career left standing. Upstanding, he basically vanished from Hollywood for

Speaker 4Mm

Becca Hartwellyears.

Speaker 4-hmm.

Becca Hartwell:

Speaker 3Puck later reported he had no family fortune left to fall back on.

Becca HartwellWait, he was working as a sober companion? Actual shifts in between acting jobs.

Speaker 3That's what Puck reported, yeah. Not exactly the Hammer money everyone assumed was there.

Becca HartwellRough landing for a guy fronting studio movies five years ago.

Speaker 3And the quote that really sums it up came from Hollywood Reporter. He said he'd have done a cat food commercial.

Becca HartwellStop.

Speaker 3Dead serious.

Becca HartwellThat's not somebody chasing fame. That's somebody trying to make rent.

Speaker 3I hear that doesn't mean every choice after gets a pass though.

Becca HartwellI'm not saying it does.

Speaker 3But it explains saying yes to almost anything that pays.

Becca HartwellEven a script from Uwe Boll.

Speaker 3Even that.

Becca HartwellSo what actually got written into this thing that got banned outright in Germany?

Speaker 3So here's what actually got banned, not just the marketing, the movie itself.

Becca HartwellOkay, walk me through it: what is this thing actually about?

Speaker 3Uwe Boll writes and directs and Hammer plays a guy named Michael Sanders, a vigilante going after migrants, alleged rapists, judges he decides are corrupt.

Becca HartwellSo basically a revenge fantasy with a very specific enemies list.

Speaker 3Pretty much. And Germany's ratings board, the FSK, They didn't just slop it with an adult rating and move on; they refused to rate it at all.

Becca HartwellWait, no rating whatsoever?

Speaker 3Hmm.

Becca HartwellWhat does that even do to a movie?

Speaker 3It kills theatrical release; no rating means no cinema chain touches it, no billboard, barely any advertising. Variety tied that ban to the film's anti-migrant content and its violence.

Becca HartwellSo it's not censored exactly, it's just erased from public view.

Speaker 3Functionally, yeah; and Variety's own critic didn't spare it either: the review called it "astonishingly bad," and said the film could only hurt Hammer's comeback, not help it.

Becca HartwellOuch, that's brutal from the trade paper that's now covering him getting a global distribution deal off it.

Speaker 3There's a scene people keep bringing up: Sanders killing a Muslim family over an alleged rape gang connection. No trial, no evidence shown, just execution.

Becca HartwellYeah, that's not subtext; that's the plot.

Speaker 3Right, that's the scene critics point to when they call this a culture war movie dressed up as an action flick.

Becca HartwellOkay, but here's my pushback Miles? Did banning it actually work? Hmm.

MilesHmm.

Becca HartwellBecause a movie nobody can see in German theaters just became the most famous banned movie in the world.

MilesThat's the tension, isn't it? The band was supposed to limit exposure.

Becca HartwellAnd instead it became the headline. Musk didn't even need to argue the politics; he just replied to a chart of the film's sales saying a sequel will be even better.

MilesWhich tells you exactly what game he thinks he's playing.

Becca HartwellFree Speech martyr versus algorithm fed marketing stunt, pick your framing.

MilesEither way, a regulator trying to contain one film handed a billionaire the perfect box to check.

Becca HartwellAnd once Musk's two hundred forty million followers got a taste, this stopped being about Germany at all.

MilesIt became about who else jumped on board.

Becca HartwellOh, and the guest list on that is something else. Okay, so the guest list on this thing? A wall of right-wing checkmarks.

MilesMm-hmm. Give me names.

Becca HartwellTommy Robinson, Libs of TikTok, Jack Posobiec, Patrick Bet-David, Wikipedia's rundown reads like a right-wing group chat all posting the same clip.

MilesAnd Boll didn't just sit back and enjoy it.

Becca HartwellNo, he publicly thanked Musk and then called on Trump to watch it.

MilesThe president of a $2 million indie?

Becca HartwellThat's the ask, yeah.

MilesHere's what really moves me: money. Variety reported on June 30th that Quiver Distribution grabbed worldwide rights.

Becca HartwellWorldwide worldwide?

MilesVariety called it a dramatic Elon Musk intervention. Everywhere except the UK, the German-speaking countries, South Korea and Taiwan.

Becca HartwellSo the exact places already skeptical of it are the ones opting out.

MilesRight, the countries with actual regulatory teeth said no thanks.

Becca HartwellAnd within days, I mean days, Boll's already... Pretty teasing Citizen Vigilante two for twenty twenty seven?

MilesOf course he is.

Becca HartwellA poster even dropped-Hammer, gun in hand, tagline about coming to America?

MilesThis is the part that gets me, though. Two weeks ago this was a banned German Indian nobody outside genre forums cared about.

Becca HartwellAnd now it's a worldwide distribution, a sequel and a president being publicly summoned to watch it.

MilesOne platform, one post, forty eight hours. That's the whole machine.

Becca HartwellBut here's the thing that stopped me cold researching this. While all that was happening, the guy who actually made the movie was reportedly falling apart over it.

MilesHammer, the one costing the checks?

Becca HartwellSources telling Puck he was in tears the first time he saw the finished cut.

MilesHuh, that's a hard turn.

Becca HartwellOkay, so building on that gut punch, World of Reel reported Hammer is now calling his own movie hateful and disgusting.

MilesWait, his own movie?

Becca HartwellHis own movie. He says it flat out wasn't the film he signed on for.

MilesSo what changed between signing and watching the finished cut?

Becca HartwellHe claims Boll only ever handed him a 50-page script before shooting even started.

Miles50 pages. A feature usually runs closer to 100. Do a hundred, a hundred ten.

Becca HartwellRight, so a huge chunk of what ended up on screen, including that scene we covered, wasn't on the page he read.

MilesConvenient timing for that memory.

Becca HartwellI mean, indie shoots are chaos, Miles. Scripts get rewritten on set. Actors don't always see the final cut before release.

MilesSure, but reports say he was paid around $250,000 to headline this.

Becca Hartwell$250?

MilesThat's the figure floating around; and sources close to Hammer told Puck he was in tears the first time he watched it in full.

Becca HartwellIn tears! That's not someone faking outrage for headlines.

MilesHow? Maybe not; but he took the check, showed up, made the movie, and only objected once it turned into a lightning rod.

Becca HartwellOr once he saw what they'd built around his face.

MilesWorld of Real wasn't buying the innocent act either. They asked flat out whether he was truly oblivious to the film's messaging.

Becca HartwellMaybe he wasn't.

MilesAnd there's a wrinkle. He's not exactly closing the door on a sequel.

Becca HartwellWait, he's open to more of this?

MilesOh, we're getting there.

Becca HartwellOkay, shifting to the real verdict here.

MilesGo for it.

Becca HartwellMy take? A director and a billionaire chasing a culture war moment decided to use Hammer as their way back into headlines.

MilesI hear that, but he cast that check and only found the outrage once Germany banned it and Musk turned it into a trending topic.

Becca HartwellDesperation isn't the same as complicity.

MilesMaybe, but taking the money before you've read the whole script makes this a... The surprise looked like convenient timing.

Becca HartwellWe're just going to disagree on this one.

MilesFair. What worries me more than Hammer, though?

Becca HartwellWhat's that?

MilesNobody negotiated this comeback with audiences. Musk just decided, posted it, 240 million people saw it, and the algorithm did the rest.

Becca HartwellSo the algorithm's deciding who gets forgiven now? Critics and box office don't even get a vote?

MilesIt's whoever owns the platform.

Becca HartwellWhich leaves us with the real question. If Hammer actually... Camera actually makes that sequel? Does that prove this was a comeback?

MilesOr does it just prove there's a bigger payday once the distribution's already locked in?

Becca HartwellMy verdict? I think Hammer got swept up by forces way bigger than him, and that deserves some sympathy.

MilesMy verdict? Sympathy's fine, but he took the check knowing exactly what kind of film gets Elon Musk excited.

Becca HartwellWe're never settling this one.

MilesNope. 48 hours, one post, 240 million followers, Hollywood didn't get a vote in this comeback.

Becca HartwellNot from where I'm sitting. Before we go, the line sticking with me is Miles's point about Musk deciding who gets forgiven now.

MilesYeah, that scale part: a quarter billion people, forty eight hours Wow. and a banned German indie ends up with worldwide distribution.

Becca HartwellAnd that Hollywood Reporter quote still guts me, the one where he says he'd have done a cat food commercial.

MilesWhich is the whole verdict, honestly: you can feel for the fall and still question how he climbed. Climbed back.

Becca HartwellUnderstanding him doesn't mean letting him off the hook.

MilesRight-that's Armie Hammer, that's citizen vigilante, mess and all.

Becca HartwellGot a case you want us to try next?

MilesDrop it in the reviews. Tag us @StarWitnessPod.

Becca HartwellNew episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you don't miss the verdict.

MilesThanks for spending this one with us.

Becca HartwellSee you next week.