‘BMF’ Producer Suspended After Reportedly Threatening Striking Writers with His SUV
A producer for STARZ’s crime series BMF has been suspended after reportedly threatening writers peacefully protesting outside of the set.
Ian Woolf, who’s worked on several popular movies and television shows, including Criminal Minds, Queens, and the 1984 film, Dune, has been accused of “pointing his SUV as though it were a weapon” and slamming the breaks “within six feet” of show writers Brian Egeston and Gabriel Alejandro Garza.
Egeston, who’s worked on shows such as House of Payne, shared the incident in a post on Twitter directed to Woolf, writing, “What you did today on Hank Aaron Drive and blocks from the birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr….was hateful.” In several additional posts, Egeston wrote, “I felt the hate and aggression of scenarios similar to Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and others who have been harmed at the hands of hate-filled oppressors.”
Garza, who is a WGA strike captain, backed up Egeston’s claims in a separate post, stating that he was “standing next to Brain when this happened.” He noted the two “weren’t impeding traffic. We weren’t even standing on the public driveway that is the entrance to this production’s base camp.”
In what sounded like a chilling series of events, Garza alleged, “While my back was turned, another writer yelled, ‘look out!’ as Brain suddenly pulled me away with him. Immediately, I heard a vehicle skidding as it sped into the driveway, and turned to see an SUV coming to a stop — angled directly at me and Brain instead of angled to enter the parking lot.”
Elsewhere the writer added, “I made eye contact with the driver,” who identified as Woolf, “who looked directly back at me as he hit the accelerator one more time, followed by the brakes, and skid even closer to us.”
At first, Woolf reportedly told those picketing, “I didn’t see you guys,” before he eventually admitted loudly, “I was trying to scare you!’” He apparently admitted to this twice. Garza believes Woolf’s “maneuver could’ve killed us. Plain and simple.”
Lionsgate has since begun an investigation into the incident, telling Deadline in a statement, “We take acts of intimidation and threats of violence seriously and investigate them thoroughly. As we continue to investigate, we have sent home the individual involved.”
You can read Egeston’s full thread here.
