Armie Hammer slams comeback film ‘Citizen Vigilante’ as ‘hateful,’ director fires back
by The Washington Times AI News Desk · The Washington TimesArmie Hammer is privately disowning “Citizen Vigilante,” the film that marked his first leading role since the sexual misconduct allegations that derailed his career in 2021, according to a report from Puck.
A source in Mr. Hammer’s camp told Puck’s Kim Masters that the actor broke down the first time he watched the finished film, a low-budget vigilante thriller from German director Uwe Boll. “He called me and said, ’F—- This is hateful, disgusting,’” the source said, adding that Mr. Hammer believed he had signed on to a different movie than the one Mr. Boll ultimately released. “It’s not like he sent him a hundred-page script,” the source said. “When he saw the final product, he was, ’That was not the movie I thought we made.’”
Mr. Boll pushed back Tuesday in a statement to TheWrap, describing a smooth working relationship with his star. “Armie was perfect for the part and I loved working with him,” Mr. Boll said. “He was prepared and delivered every day on set. We both had a great time working together even if the subject matter of the film is very serious and real.” Mr. Boll pointed to the film’s audience reception rather than its critical drubbing, citing a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.5-star rating on Amazon. “They needed and wanted a blunt and hard film about reality,” he said.
“Citizen Vigilante” casts Mr. Hammer as an American businessman living in Europe who takes justice into his own hands against violent criminals, many of them portrayed as migrants. The film was denied a rating by Germany’s film board over concerns it could incite anti-migrant violence, effectively barring it from that country’s theaters. It gained wider attention after Elon Musk posted the entire film on the social media platform X for 48 hours in late June, an arrangement Mr. Boll said came through his podcast team rather than direct contact with Mr. Musk.
Mr. Hammer’s own recent remarks suggest he knew the project carried a hard-edged political slant, even if the final cut caught him off guard. In an earlier interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he recalled receiving only a roughly 50-page script from Mr. Boll, who is known for working without full-length screenplays.
“I would have done a f—-ing cat food commercial,” Mr. Hammer said of his mindset at the time. “I just wanted to work again.”
Mr. Boll has estimated the film’s budget at about $2 million and said it had generated roughly $600,000 in North American revenue as of late June, according to Variety. Despite the modest returns, Quiver Distribution has since acquired worldwide rights to the film, and Mr. Boll has said he is developing a sequel, though no script yet exists. Asked whether Mr. Hammer would return for a follow-up, the source in his camp told Puck it would take “life-changing money,” adding: “Everyone has a breaking point.”
Mr. Hammer’s career collapsed in 2021 after multiple women accused him of sexual and emotional misconduct. He denied wrongdoing, and Los Angeles prosecutors declined to file criminal charges in 2023, but he was dropped by his talent agency. He returned to the screen last year in the Western “Frontier Crucible,” but “Citizen Vigilante” marked his first leading role since the allegations emerged in 2021.
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