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Quiver Distribution has taken worldwide rights, excluding U.K., German-speaking territories, South Korea and Taiwan, to Armie Hammer’s controversial comeback movie “Citizen Vigilante.”
The distributor, which is led by
co-presidents Jeff Sackman and Berry Meyerowitz, already holds North American rights and released the action thriller there on June 19.
The deal comes after a dramatic intervention by Elon Musk, who posted the film on his X account – which has 240 million followers – to download in its entirety for free for 48 hours, from Thursday to Saturday.
Speaking to Variety on Monday, the movie’s German director, Uwe Boll, said Musk had contacted the team behind Boll’s U.S. podcast, “Uwe Boll Raw,” which he hosts with Gary Otto, before posting the movie on X.
“He contacted my U.S. podcast, but not me directly, and they told me, like, ‘We got a message from Elon Musk,’” he explained. “I thought that it must be a parody account… I mean, you’re not really thinking that he would contact you, but then it turned out it was true.
“But I didn’t really chat myself with him or talk to him. It was very quick, you know. I think this guy, I don’t know what he’s doing per day, but I think his attention went like fast, you know. So, I felt also if we don’t in a way agree to do it, he would’ve just moved on.” Asked if Musk had actually asked for permission to post the film on X, Boll replied, “Basically, yes.”
Providing the film for free may have hurt the earning potential of the film, but, equally, it has gifted the film the kind of publicity that an indie distributor like Quiver would never be able to afford.
“There is, of course, a good and a bad side of the X posting,” Boll said. “The question you have to evaluate is: Is that bringing more money in the end, or is that costing me a lot of money? You know, you get a lot of PR, but you don’t get a lot of money. So, we will figure that out in the next four or six weeks.”
Boll added that, given the “political power” that the movie unleashed, and “then it was only out in the U.S. and Canada, it felt a little like: No, we should, for a short time at least, give this movie to the world.’” He explained that the film doesn’t have a rating in the U.K. yet, and was denied a rating in Germany, and – apart from Korea and Taiwan – it hadn’t looked likely that it would be picked up in other territories, so he had little to lose from agreeing to let Musk post the film on X. “So, that’s the thing, you feel like, ‘Why not,’ you know? Like, just go for it.”
In North America, the film is available on iTunes, Amazon, Fandango and Google Play, and Boll estimates it has generated revenue of around $600,000 so far. Given the budget, which he estimates is around $2 million, he still has a way to go before recouping the budget, as well as generating enough money for the sequel to “Citizen Vigilante,” which he wants to release next year.
“When you make a successful movie, you always hope that you can make a second part, and it would make sense to send [Sanders, the vigilante played by Hammer] to England or to send him to America, and then we go from there.”
Although he said he has some ideas for the sequel, there is no script as yet. Asked if Hammer would return in the sequel, he said, “I think he would be happy to do it.” Variety reached out to Hammer’s representative to confirm if the actor would reprise the role, but has received no reply as yet.
Variety’s review of “Citizen Vigilante” stated that Boll “delivers a violent, incoherent, morally bankrupt slice of exploitation,” but the writer-director is unfazed by this damning judgment. “I personally like exploitation movies,” he said, adding that he was a fan of the movies of John Carpenter, George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” and “Death Wish.” “So, I’m not against this kind of movie in general, and I don’t think that’s an insult. I don’t try to be Tarkovsky.”
He claimed that a lot of the negative reviews had come from writers with a political standpoint opposed to his own, adding, “They cannot stand to face the political reality.”
Boll does have at least one high-profile admirer in the business, however. Writer-director Roger Avary, who won an Oscar with Quentin Tarantino for the “Pulp Fiction” screenplay, posted an admiring review of the film from the National Conservative website on his X account, and posed the question, “Is [Boll] the boldest and bravest auteur working in cinema today?” Boll, reposting this, stated, “Roger Avary loves it,” and said in an accompanying video, “Thanks Roger Avary. You are not a pussy as all the other people who are shy to speak out.” To which Avary responded, “ ‘You’re not a pussy’ is going on my tombstone. Thanks, Uwe!”
