Whatever is going on with The Daily Wire’s user base (likely diminished thanks to the damage done to Russian bot farms), it’s clear the extremist conservative outlet has found a new money stream in Hollywood. With Run Hide Fight: Infidels still fresh in people’s minds, and the controversial pro-ICE action flick Pawn Shop causing star Danny Trejo to plead ignorance, its most star-studded film, Confession, is on the horizon with a newly released teaser.
Confession stars Rob Lowe, James Franco, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Nick Nolte, Emile Hirsch, Dean Norris, Richard Brake, and Brad Dourif. Damn. What could possibly bring all of these big names to the table? Well, it’s probably not the screenplay by Daily Wire creator and batshit political commentator Ben Shapiro. Likely, they were drawn to it by the chance to work with Czech director Václav Marhoul, who directed 2019’s acclaimed Holocaust drama The Painted Bird, a film so brutal it caused walkouts at multiple film festivals.
Here’s the synopsis for Confession: “In Stalin’s 1938 Moscow, a disillusioned former literature professor, Alexei (Lowe), is arrested and brought to the infamous Lubyanka Prison, charged with conspiring with his dissident priest. There, Alexei faces interrogation by his brilliant and brutal former student, Vladimir (Franco). Forced to the ultimate test of betrayal or conscience, and confronted with his past sins, Alexei finds redemption through truth, sacrificing himself to save others in a haunting tale of morality and resistance.”
Well, at least Franco doesn’t even seem to be trying to do a Russian accent, based on the footage we’ve got. Unsurprisingly, this looks like it will be another endurance test from Marhoul, even though it’s stylistically very different from The Painted Bird.
Confession will premiere at the Warsaw Film Festival tomorrow. It will then open for one night only in 100 theaters on November 11th, the same day it hits the Daily Wire+ platform.
