‘BMF’ producer suspended over incident with striking writers

Atlanta pickets say he drove SUV at them in threatening way.

A producer for the Starz drama “BMF” was suspended after allegedly threatening writers on a picket line Thursday seeking a new contract.

Atlanta writer Brian Egeston, who wrote the recent Dennis Quaid Amazon film “On a Wing and a Prayer,” said he and other writers were picketing on

Hank Aaron Drive outside Georgia State University’s football stadium, where “BMF” was shooting Thursday, when show producer Ian Woolf drove his vehicle toward them in what Egeston saw as a threatening manner.

“When you pointed your SUV at me as though it were a weapon and slammed the breaks (sic) within six feet of writers, 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,” Egeston wrote on Twitter.

Egeston said Woolf even admitted to him he was trying to “scare” them. “Mr. Woolf,” he wrote, “your actions purveyed a deep generational hate for us. And that, sir, is a travesty for which you must be held accountable. If not by your superiors and peers, then by the people of Atlanta because the South will have something to say about what you did today.”

Lionsgate, which produces “BMF,” said Woolf has been suspended pending an investigation into the matter.

“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,” a Lionsgate rep said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

Gabriel Alejandro Garza, a Writers Guild of America strike captain, said on Twitter that he was there as well, and they were able to capture Wolff on video admitting that he was trying to intimidate them.

“His maneuver could have killed us,” he wrote. “Plain and simple.”

The WGA, in a statement, said “workers should not be threatened with physical harm when exercising their right to publicly protest and picket against unfair wages and working conditions. Anyone who harms or threatens to harm a member or supporter of the Writers Guild on a picket line should be held responsible for their actions. The WGA is working closely with members who were endangered during this incident to hold this individual accountable.”