Pro-Trump Media The Epoch Times Enters Religious Film Market

In recent years, The Epoch Times has built a large following by publishing right-wing news stories and peddling baseless election conspiracy theories. This summer, the conservative news organization hopes to conquer new territory: Hollywood.

Epoch Studios, an arm of the Epoch Times nonprofit, plans to release The Firing Squad, a drama starring Kevin Sorbo and Cuba Gooding Jr. as drug dealers who find God behind bars.

The Firing Squad marks Epoch’s entry into the growing market for faith-based films, a genre that includes recent box-office hits such as Sound of Freedom, Unsung Hero and Jesus Revolution. The film’s theatrical release on August 2 comes as other right-wing media companies are getting into the entertainment game, releasing content that runs counter to what conservatives see as Hollywood’s progressive, secular agenda.

The creation of Epoch Studios has caught the attention of those who have closely followed the New York-based media company's rise from a fringe print media startup founded in 2000 by followers of Falun Gong, a religious group persecuted in China, to a leading conservative outlet with content amplifying Donald Trump's conspiracies and right-wing messages.

NBC News previously reported that the Election Integrity Partnership, a coalition of researchers that has documented misinformation surrounding the 2020 election, cited The Epoch Times for repeatedly spreading false and misleading stories about voter fraud as well as debunked conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines and the baseless Stop the Steal movement.

Given its extreme sense of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party, it makes sense that Falun Gong would produce content that reinforces a sense of persecution among Christians, cultivating a shared sensibility and opening up possibilities for continued political alliance, said AJ Bauer, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Alabama who studies right-wing media.

In a Press release In announcing The Firing Squad, Epoch Studios described itself as a storytelling platform that fosters hope, healing, and growth. The studio is overseen by executive director Sally Sun, who has overseen Epoch’s documentaries and streaming specials, some of which have religious themes, such as Divine Messengers and Church & State.

The Epoch Times Association did not respond to a request for comment on this article.

Tim Chey, who wrote and directed The Firing Squad, told NBC News he was grateful that Epoch Studios joined his passion project as a co-producer and distributor.

“I’m a huge Epoch Times fan. I love those guys,” Chey said in a recent interview.

Cheys’ film follows three Christians played by actors Sorbo (TV’s Hercules), Gooding Jr. and James Barrington who are scheduled to be shot in Indonesia. (Right-wing audiences might seek out the film in part because of Sorbo, a pro-Trump conservative activist who previously appeared in the Christian film Gods Not Dead and produces faith-based films through his own production company.)

The Firing Squad is inspired by true events that took place in the country in 2015, when Eight people sentenced for drug trafficking were put to death. One of them, an Australian national, became a Christian pastor while on death row and led the singing of Christian songs while the smugglers were executed. (The Southeast Asian nation is known for its strict drug laws.)

Chey was in Singapore when the real prison saga was unfolding and watched it live on television. He said he was moved by the reports of the religious fervour inside the prison walls: “They all came out singing Amazing Grace as they were about to be executed,” he recalled. “I thought, I have to make this film.”

Chey, who has previously directed faith-based films such as Suing the Devil (2011) and Final: The Rapture (2013), said he scouted locations across Illinois, Louisiana and Georgia before God opened the door to the perfect setting: an abandoned prison just an hour south of where he and his wife live in Florida. The film, which cost less than $5 million, was shot in two months.

“I'm proud of the way the film looks,” Chey said, “and that's all that matters.”

The creators of The Firing Squad are seeking support from a broad network of evangelical churches to help boost ticket sales.

Sound of Freedom, a human trafficking thriller with Christian themes, was distributed by Utah-based Angel Studios and grossed nearly $250 million worldwide on a $14.5 million budget. Sound was a surprise hit during Barbenheimer's summer.

The thriller drew crowds of conservative moviegoers and encouraged viewers to buy tickets for others under an advance payment model. The Firing Squad uses a similar program, crowdsourcing its promotional investment. The film has grossed more than $1.8 million of its $5 million projected opening. online fundraising goal to cover television, radio, display and digital advertising expenses.

Celebrities supporting the film include country singer Randy Travis and retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre, who said in a promotion that the filmmakers would like you to see and hope to win 1 million souls to Jesus.

Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore, a company that tracks box office data, said the growing appeal of faith-based films with overtly religious themes and more subtle messages represents a demographic that has often been left out of the box office equation.

This is good for movie theater revenues and for moviegoers looking for entertainment that reflects their values ​​and views, he said.

But it remains to be seen whether Epoch Studios can match the cultural notoriety and commercial reach of other conservative and Christian media companies. (The Firing Squad hits theaters the same weekend as the children's film Harold and the Purple Crayon and a new psychological thriller from M. Night Shyamalan.)

The Daily Wire, founded by conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro and filmmaker Jeremy Boreing, launched its own film and television studio in 2021. Fox Nation, the entertainment arm of Fox News, runs a streaming service that hosts a variety of reality shows and historical documentaries. Great American Pure Flix, a production company with a streaming service, has Christian-themed films that have found mainstream success, including the series Gods Not Dead.

Big companies have also clearly seen a business opportunity. Sony Pictures owns the independent Christian studio Affirm Films, which has produced and distributed titles such as Jennifer Garner's Miracles From Heaven and last year's Big George Foreman.

Meanwhile, Epoch Studios' parent company is under the microscope. Federal prosecutors announced last month Weidong Bill Guan ChargedGuan, the company’s chief financial officer, allegedly laundered at least $67 million. The charges against Guan are not related to the company’s information-gathering activities, the Justice Department said. Guan has pleaded not guilty and was released on $3 million personal bail. The Epoch Times has Guan temporarily suspended.

The Epoch Times newspaper said it plans to cooperate fully with any investigation into the allegations. statement published on its websiteThe nonprofit organization reiterated that one person's alleged wrongdoing does not represent the entire staff or the organization as a whole, and said some media outlets are misrepresenting it because its founders are Falun Gong practitioners.

The Chinese government banned Falun Gong, which combines principles of Buddhism and Taoism, in 1999 and considers it a cult.

Asked about the money laundering charges against Guan, Chey, the director of The Firing Squad, defended the executive and insisted he was innocent until proven guilty.

“I only met Bill in January and I met him very lightly. I met him maybe two or three times,” Chey said. “But, having said that, I believe in Bill’s innocence, mainly because he took on a poor Christian filmmaker’s project and defended it for no reason other than the fact that he believes strongly in religious freedom.”