Letitia Wright tells fans she doesn't "align" with her new film’s conservative marketer

Letitia Wright has stepped in it again. Three years after she filmed, published, and deleted a video expressing her skepticism of the then-new COVID-19 vaccine, she has found herself in the conspiracy theory world again. Wright produced the film The Sound Of Hope: The Story Of Possum Trot, inspired by the true story of Donna and Reverand Martin, who adopted 77 children in East Texas. Unsurprisingly, for a film with the tagline “The fight for kids begins July 4,” Sound Of Hope is distributed by the faith-based media organization Angel Studios, who released box office head-scratcher Sound Of Freedom and The Chosen. However, Wright takes issue with Angel Studio’s marketing partner, Ben Shapiro’s conservative media apparatus, The Daily Wire. Wright says that, though she was an executive producer on the movie, she was unaware of Daily Wire’s involvement and denies affiliation with them.

“After we completed the production of this film, Angel Studios were brought on board to handle its distribution, and they later partnered with The Daily Wire,” Wright wrote in an Instagram post. “That was not my decision, and I was not given an update or made aware of this decision. I am in no way aligned or affiliated with The Daily Wire.”

Angel Studios has become quite famous for their Sound Of series. However, despite the first installment, Sound Of Freedom, which looks like an ordinary movie about a man who points a gun and holds a flashlight, valorizes a highly controversial anti-sex trafficking organization, Operation Underground Railroad. O.U.R.’s tactics and the actions of its former leader, Tim Ballard (played by Jim Cavezial in the film), have been criticized in recent years. After the film was produced, Ballard was accused of sexual misconduct by seven of his employees and O.U.R. for not offering proof behind their claims that they had spent years trying to turn into a TV show. That lack of evidence eventually became the basis for Sound Of Freedom. Regardless, Wright had no problem working with them. As for The Daily Wire, she’s “thankful for all those who want to positively champion this film and campaign to serve children” but does not “condone using this beautiful film for divisive political purposes.”

Taking Wright at her word and ignoring the strange reports of her exhibiting the same conspiratorial thinking these organizations traffic in, it is unfortunate that such off-putting entities are involved in her film. But it also strains credibility that she didn’t know about it until three days ago and had no say in the matter.

Correction: The original headline and article referred to The Daily Wire as the Sound Of Hope’s distributor. This was incorrect. Daily Wire is a marketing partner of Angel Studios. The headline and article have been updated to reflect this. We also corrected the article's timeline of Ballard’s allegations. We regret the error.