The director of a controversial new movie touted as a comeback vehicle for disgraced actor Armie Hammer is speaking out after getting a surprise boost from Elon Musk.
“Citizen Vigilante,” starring Hammer in his first major role after being hit with allegations of sexual misconduct and assault five years ago, will be distributed worldwide by Quiver Distribution, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Tuesday. The news comes just days after Musk promoted the film, which reportedly embraces anti-immigrant themes and contains scenes of extreme violence, with a free download for viewers on X.
Speaking to Variety late Tuesday, German filmmaker Uwe Boll said he initially thought he’d received a message from “a parody account” when Musk contacted the team behind his U.S. podcast, “Uwe Boll Raw,” with his plan to share the movie online.
“It was very quick, you know,” Boll told the outlet. “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.”
“Citizen Vigilante” follows Michael Sanders (played by Hammer), an American businessman who wages a gun-toting crusade against officials and immigrant perpetrators of violence in Croatia.
The movie was released to little fanfare in the U.S. last month, drawing negative reviews. Variety critic Todd Gilchrist called it “a violent, incoherent, morally bankrupt slice of exploitation,” while blasting Hammer’s character for being rendered “as xenophobic and entitled as the broadest American stereotype.” Meanwhile, Salon’s Coleman Spilde was even more blunt, deeming the film “a bigoted pile of garbage.”
“Citizen Vigilante” seemingly caught Musk’s eye after Boll confirmed it had been blocked from traditional modes of promotion in Germany, reportedly out of concern that its depictions of anti-immigrant violence could inspire copycat attacks.
The tech entrepreneur and longtime ally of President Donald Trump shared a link to stream the movie in its entirety on X last week.
“This is what people want to see,” he wrote in a separate post, alongside a report that the movie had hit No. 1 on Amazon Prime Video.
In his chat with Variety, Boll argued many critics might have been more opposed to the views “Citizen Vigilante” presents than the film itself, noting, “They cannot stand to face the political reality.” He’s also hinted at plans for a sequel, and is hopeful Hammer will sign on.
“When you make a successful movie, you always hope that you can make a second part, and it would make sense to send [Sanders] to England or to send him to America, and then we go from there,” he said.
Though Hammer has long denied the allegations leveled against him, he did take some responsibility for his downfall in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last month.
“I made these problems for myself,” he told the outlet. “This didn’t happen to me by a fluke accident. I didn’t do what people are saying I did. But I brought very dangerous and unsafe people into my life, and I pissed off people in my life — and here we are.”
Though he was mostly tight-lipped on the content of “Citizen Vigilante,” he admitted he “cried” when he received the offer to appear in the film, noting: “I would have done a fucking cat food commercial. I just wanted to work again.”
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