Mike CernovichVerified account

In June 2018 my wife texts me, "Michael this is the film you always wanted." The directors had sent over a rough cut. (I hadn't talked to them about the film since it wrapped in December 2017.) Hoaxed was, well it was amazing. I can say that cuz THEY made it, not me.

When you have a good-enough film (like Silenced my first film), you release it. 80/20 Rule. Ship the film. When you have a potentially great film, the calculus changes. Hoaxed, I realized from watching the rough cut, had "Pumping Iron level potential." What I mean....

If you go to the gym, it's because of a movie. George Butler made a documentary about an obscure muscleman and an odd subculture. Pumping Iron created gym culture. It's one of the most culturally significant films of all time. I've wanted to make a Pumping Iron level film.

Once I saw the Hoaxed movie rough cut (2 hours 45 minutes), I realized the directors were waaaaay waaaay waaaaay better than I thought. Luckily they are Christians, and because of that Hollywood has discriminated against them. There's no way I / we could have afforded them.

Hoaxed goes from a project that I think will be a step up from Silenced, make backers happy, and I won't lose much money on - I put in 50K of my own money into Hoaxed - to....a potentially massively impactful film. Then I got more involved.

I wanted to make sure Hoaxed had maximum impact, and that meant talking to a real producer and tightening up story telling. To get a sense of the productive value of Hoaxed, watch the trailer here:https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/1051653017035001856 …

First question the new producer of Hoaxed asks - DO you have E&O insurance? Uh...What? "Hoaxed looks like it had a multi-million dollar budget. People will sue you for the f-ck of it." (Even though Hoaxed is indie, it looks expensive.) Thus insurance review. 16 weeks worth.

My First Amendment lawyer cleared Hoaxed in August, but insurance companies have a different level of review. For them, it's not enough that you'd win if someone sued you. They want a film "lawsuit proof." Thus more re-cuts and clipping clips and delays.