By now, you’ve probably heard about “Citizen Vigilante,” especially if you spend any time on Twitter (X), where Elon Musk and a constellation of right-wing voices have been amplifying the film for weeks. The movie is the latest from German provocateur Uwe Boll, the filmmaker often derided as one of the world’s worst directors, and it casts Armie Hammer as an American businessman who goes on a “Death Wish”-style manhunt that largely targets immigrants. Even without knowing much more than that, the online celebration probably told you plenty: it’s violent, reactionary, and reportedly repugnant enough that Germany blocked it from theaters over its anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim content.
Unfortunately for Hammer, who has been trying to mount a comeback after his once-promising career collapsed in 2021, “Citizen Vigilante” may have turned what was meant to be a work opportunity into another reputational problem. According to a new report from Puck, Hammer was horrified after seeing the final cut of the low-budget shock film, which has become a cause célèbre for the reactionary right.
“The first time he saw it, he was in tears,” a source in Hammer’s camp told Puck. “And not tears of joy. He called me and said, ‘Fuck. This is hateful, disgusting.’”
According to the same insider, Hammer knew the film “certainly leaned toward the right,” but did not expect the final version to be so extreme. “Uwe works in a very frantic way,” the source said. “It’s not like he sent him a hundred-page script. When he saw the final product, he was, ‘That was not the movie I thought we made,’ and he freaked the fuck out.”
That tracks with what Hammer himself recently told The Hollywood Reporter in the run-up to the film’s release, recalling that Boll sent him a slim, roughly 50-page script. Hammer also described just how desperate he was for work at the time. “I would have done a fucking cat food commercial,” he said. Puck says an attorney for Hammer did not respond to requests for comment.
The film’s notoriety only grew after Musk posted the full movie on X for two days, reportedly helping propel “Citizen Vigilante” to No. 1 on Apple and Amazon’s streaming charts. Puck notes that the timing came shortly after Musk was criticized for amplifying rhetoric allegedly linked to anti-immigrant riots in Belfast. The film also received a limited theatrical release.
For Hammer, the role was hardly the carefully managed comeback move some around him had imagined. His once-rising career collapsed in 2021 after allegations ranging from kinky sexual behavior to sexual assault. Hammer has acknowledged being emotionally abusive but has denied other claims. Since then, he has remained without major representation and largely outside the studio system.
Puck’s report also offers a glimpse into how Hammer was trying to find a way back into Hollywood. In early 2024, he reportedly met with the outlet to consider a possible on-the-record interview about the allegations and his future. At the time, Hammer said he had been living in the Cayman Islands, where he spent much of his childhood, before returning to Los Angeles. He also said he needed money, had tried selling timeshares in the Caymans, and was working as a sober companion.
That interview with Puck never happened. Hammer eventually spoke with Piers Morgan, appeared on the podcast “Painful Lessons,” launched his own podcast, and then signed on to “Citizen Vigilante.” Puck reports that he was paid somewhere around $250,000 for the film.
Since then, Hammer has shot a handful of small projects, including “Night Driver,” an ultra-low-budget thriller written and directed by John Bevilacqua, and “Rockets Red Glare,” a film about the founding of JPL co-starring Josh Lucas and directed by Chinese actress and screenwriter Luo Yan. But according to the source in Hammer’s camp, via Puck, finding a small independent movie that can actually break through is like “looking for a needle in a haystack.”
The insider suggested that Hammer’s best path back would be for an established filmmaker to take a chance on him, naming Luca Guadagnino, who directed Hammer in “Call Me by Your Name.” But that seems super unlikely, even though Guadagnino has had recent troubles of his own, with “After the Hunt” bombing and “Artificial” being dumped by Amazon MGM.
Meanwhile, Boll is already moving forward with a “Citizen Vigilante” sequel. Given how appalled Hammer is said to have been by the first film, Puck asked whether he would ever reprise the role.
“It would have to be life-changing money,” the source said. “Everyone has a breaking point.”
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2008. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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