Pro-Trump news outlet The Epoch Times enters the faith-based movie market

In recent years, The Epoch Times has amassed a large audience as a publisher of right-wing news articles and peddler of baseless election conspiracies.

In recent years, The Epoch Times has amassed a large audience as a publisher of right-wing news articles and peddler of baseless election conspiracies. This summer, the conservative media company is hoping to conquer new territory: Hollywood.

Epoch Studios, a branch of the wider Epoch Times Association, plans to release “The Firing Squad,” a drama starring Kevin Sorbo and Cuba Gooding Jr. as drug smugglers who find God behind bars.

“The Firing Squad” marks Epoch’s entry into the growing market of faith-based cinema, a genre that includes recent box-office successes such as “Sound of Freedom,” “Unsung Hero” and “Jesus Revolution.” The film’s Aug. 2 theatrical debut comes as other right-wing media companies are pushing into entertainment, releasing content that counters what conservatives view as Hollywood’s progressive and secular agenda.

The creation of Epoch Studios has caught the attention of those who have closely watched the New York-based media company’s ascent from a fringe print newspaper startup formed in 2000 by followers of Falun Gong, a religious group persecuted in China, into a prominent conservative outlet with content amplifying Donald Trump’s conspiracies and right-wing messaging.

NBC News has previously reported that the Election Integrity Partnership, a coalition of researchers that documented misinformation around the 2020 election, cited The Epoch Times for repeatedly spreading false and misleading stories about voter fraud as well as debunked conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines and the baseless “Stop the Steal” movement.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/epoch-studios-faith-movie-firing-squad-rcna158822

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