Hollywood director Nick Loeb is having a lot of trouble finding places to film — and people to star in — his upcoming movie about the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 decision on Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide.
As it stands now, the movie stars outspoken conservative actors Jon Voight, Robert Davi and Stacey Dash, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Voight and Davi will play two Supreme Court justices while Dash, a former Fox News commentator and short-lived GOP congressional candidate, is slated to play Mildred Jefferson, the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School and the former president of National Right to Life.
But it seems Loeb can’t find anywhere to shoot scenes and promotional photography without either facing harassment or being kicked out.
Where have they been kicked out?
Last week, standing outside his alma mater Tulane University in New Orleans, Loeb said a woman wearing a headset approached him and a production assistant while they were taking photos for the movie. She asked Loeb, “Are you the director?”
“When I told her I was,” Loeb recalled, “she told me to go f*** myself. Then she threw her headset on the ground and walked off. I found out later she was our electrician.”
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The pro-life movie’s director said he faced rejection at the University of Louisiana, too. He claimed he was told over the phone he could not film on campus “due to our content.” And after one day of shooting at Tulane, the school newspaper reported on the project, and he was barred from returning.
Then the same thing happened at a New Orleans synagogue he was renting for catering and as a hangout space for the movie’s extras.
“Once they found out what the film was about, they locked us out,” Loeb explained. “We had to call the police so that the extras and caterers could retrieve their possessions.”
Who has left the film?
Loeb also said he’s had difficulty keeping cast and crew members on the roster once they’ve discovered the movie has pro-life undertones.
“We had to replace three local actors, including one who was to play Norma McCorvey, even after she begged for the role,” the Hollywood director revealed, referring to the woman known as Jane Roe, who eventually became pro-life, in the landmark legal case.
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A costume designer also abandoned the project after two weeks “because of the subject matter and pressure from her peers,” Loeb’s production partner Cathy Allyn said.
Then their location manager left them after learning about the movie’s storyline. When they began shooting scenes in Washington, D.C., the location scout sent them an email that read:
“I have been doing research on the movie trying to figure out who is producing and what the gist of the story is, and I finally found it, and so I am withdrawing from this project. I am a staunch pro-abortion feminist activist, and I will not be party to such horrible propaganda.”
Furthermore, Allyn and Loeb were not initially directing the film. The pair decided to share the role after the movie’s previous director, a woman, quit. She only worked the job for one day.
What is the movie about?
Loeb and Allyn have so far kept much of the movie’s details under wraps, though some information have been revealed.
The film “chronicles the infamous abortion-enabling court case that impacted American history,” according to executive producer Alveda King, the niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. She went on to say the movie will showcase the “real untold story of how mountains of lies led to an injustice that has deprived millions of people of human dignity and human rights.”
Loeb told Breitbart News in January that this movie — “Roe v. Wade” — will be “the first movie ever about the true story” of the controversial Supreme Court case that dramatically transformed America’s collective conscience.
Allyn and Loeb said the timing of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement is perfect for their film, which is slated to hit theaters in January. Kennedy’s exit gives President Donald Trump the opportunity to appoint a second justice to the bench, potentially paving the way for a legal challenge to the 1973 decision at the center of the movie.
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“But even without that news, it’s one of the most controversial political decisions in history. It divides us and makes us uncomfortable,” Loeb told THR. “[N]o one has really told the whole truth about Roe v. Wade in a film. When I delved into this, I discovered conspiracy theories, fake news, made-up statistics and a whole lot of people involved who switched their positions from pro-choice to pro-life, including Norma.”
Kennedy, for his part, is stepping down from the Supreme Court on July 31. Trump said he will announce his choice to succeed Kennedy by Monday, July 9.