Angel Studios vs. The Chosen: Corruption Behind an Industry built on Imago Dei?

Recent reporting shows a glimpse of years-long inner tensions and ongoing legal fighting between Mormon-owned Angel Studios and now Mormon led "The Chosen".

Dear readers and subscribers,

As promised, I am slowly revamping my substack to bring to you regular content—including exclusive reporting from Rome.

In this article, I will provide court documents and sourced reporting uncovering just a few of the ongoing tensions within two Mormon-led entities—made famous for their fictional depiction of the Life of Jesus and His followers.

It is critical to share the information in this article with those who you know watch and financially support “The Chosen” and Angel Studios—so that they may be fully informed of facts, many which seem to have been strategically veiled from Christian audiences.

As a note, I will not provide details of my experiences when encountering the individuals named in this article, after I personally arranged for their visit and meeting with Pope Francis, August 2021. I am, however, willing to speak with other journalists as a witness to corporate actions that left a disabled Senior Executive incredibly sick and stranded in Italy (for a year)—a scandal which should be independently investigated and revealed.

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Last week, Variety headlined an article titled ‘The Chosen’ Worldwide Distribution Rights Acquired by Lionsgate” (Link)

Citing that the series, which is a fictional representation of the lives of Jesus and His Disciples, has “pulled in $35 million at the box office”, the article goes on to quote creator/director Dallas Jenkins. “Lionsgate is perfect for us. They’re strong and experienced in the areas we’re not, but they also understand what’s unique about us and will protect that. We’ll continue to do what we do best unabated, and they’ll expand our efforts with their tremendous distribution team.”

Shortly after, however, Angel Studios released a statement seeming to contradict the report.

It seems that a pandoras box that has been kept sealed behind the scenes—and away from the prying eyes of donors, may have inadvertently been opened by Dallas Jenkins and The Chosen C-Suite team.

As a once-enthusiastic supporter of the early endeavours associated with The Chosen, I am sad to say that first-hand experience with the men behind the curtain has disillusioned me.

The scandals connected to Angel Studios and The Chosen are multiplying, and MOST of them centered on ambition and money.

The following is a detailed report that may shed light to WHY Angel Studios countered The Chosen last week.

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Angel Studios was, until 2021, known as VidAngel. Founded in 2014, the company was owned by a well-known Mormon family—Neal Harmon, Jeffrey Harmon, Daniel Harmon, Jordan Harmon, and Benton Crane. Neal Harmon is the current CEO.

In 2020, VidAngel was sued by Disney Studios and Warner Brothers due to alleged copyright infringement, settling for $62 million (Report). This suit seemed to have forced the Harmon Brothers to rebrand for the sake of future work—and in 2020 Angel Studios was born.

It was in October of this same year that Neal Harmon brought on Brad Pelo as Chief Distribution Officer—our protagonist in this report. Pelo is the Mormon founder of Ancestry.com (among other companies). Pelo is still listed as CDO on their “investment” site.

In 2018, Angel Studios and The Chosen co-presented a crowdfunding initiative (aka “pay-it-forward”) to finance the filming and production of the first few episodes of “The Chosen”. (Report)

SEC filings for Angel Studios may be cited, here:

• 2018: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1733443/000165495418006710/0001654954-18-006710-index.htm

• 2019 (??)

• 2020: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1733443/000165495420007986/chosen_c-ar.htm

• 2021: http://pdf.secdatabase.com/1786/0001683168-21-001681.pdf

• 2022: http://edgar.secdatabase.com/1015/165495422005835/filing-main.htm

• 2023: http://edgar.secdatabase.com/1811/110465923009391/filing-main.htm

With the successful launch and response to the first season of “The Chosen”, Angel Studios/ The Chosen set out to finance the second season of the streaming series, asking for individuals to continue to "donate" on their websites and social media. They claimed, in public posts and PR, that such crowdfunding was critical to supporting future filming of the series, which would be presented FOR FREE on their app (which Angel created through their acquiring of rights as sole distribution and licensing entity for The Chosen).

The exclusive nature of the partnership between The Chosen and Angel Studios is critical to note, per last week’s reports, as is consideration of Brad Pelo’s fiduciary responsibility as Angel Studio’s Chief Distribution Officer with the nature of the business and financial relationships between both companies.

This is where it gets interesting.

In cerca 2020, Angel Studios applied for a $47 million VC investment from Elon Musk's Gigafund (Report), allegedly on the basis of their exclusivity managing and distributing The Chosen (by far, their largest asset per their SEC filings). This is while continuing to ask for “pay-it-forward” donations from the public.

After Season 2 of The Chosen premiered in April, 2021, tempests seem to move in. Dallas Jenkins would end up premiering Season 3 in November, 2022—not on Angel Studio’s app, but in theatres.

So what happened during the 19 Months between Season 2 release and Season 3?

In early 2021, I coordinated with the Vatican to obtain my friend, actor Jonathan Roumie, an audience with the Pope. As COVID lockdowns were still ongoing, we had to wait for months to receive an answer from the Papal Household, but when we did, Jonathan notified Dallas Jenkins. This quickly spread from a private pilgrimage arranged between friends, to a corporate event opportunity seized by Angel Studios. A week after both Jonathan and Dallas were received by Pope Francis (August 2021), and Angel Studios executives had hosted their events (film crews in tow), all the corporate team left Rome…that is, all but one.

A senior executive with a serious disability had fallen ill, and the company—rather than providing support—left this senior employee behind, shortly later terminating their position. (As I said in my introduction, I am a witness who later actively supported this stranded and extremely ill individual, as they literally had no contacts in Italy aside from me and one other professional connection. I will be happy to engage with other journalists on record, but will not report in detail on it.) Rather off-brand for two companies whose target audience is Christian and who are profiting off the Imago Dei, no?

According to public records, later in 2021 the tempest behind the scenes at Angel Studios and The Chosen began to downpour. Brad Pelo abruptly resigned his c-suite position at Angel Studios, along with his team, and assumed a new position as President of The Chosen.

“Pelo had solicited these employees (two of whom were Katherine Warnock and Sheila Perez, aka “Team Chosen”) to leave Angel Studios. On September 15, 2021 several of these employees departed from Angel Studios, and joined The Chosen LLC (TCLLC’s) payroll, contrary to Angel Studios’ desires. While Pelo ensured Angel Studios this unwanted transition would be “seamless,” it became disruptive both to Angel Studios and to TCLLC. Pelo caused TCLLC to believe Angel decided to “release the department” Pelo had built, which was not true. It was Pelo who solicited “Team Chosen” to leave Angel and join TCLLC.

In September, 2022, Angel Studios filed suit against Brad Pelo for breach of fiduciary duties.

The full suit may be found, HERE.

In the complaint, filed in the Third District Court of Salt Lake County, Angel Studios writes,

“As an officer of the company Mr. Pelo falsified information, divided internal teams within Angel Studios, undermined relationships with external teams, and moved key company assets outside of the company. While still employed with Angel Studios, he sought to undermine contractual agreements, and transferred his loyalty to the company that holds Angel’s most important agreement. Rather than working for Angel Studios’ benefit, he switched to the other side of the negotiating table. Then, after resigning his employment, he took the lead in negotiating against Angel Studios. Pelo was employed with the highest salary at Angel Studios from October 1, 2020 until December 20, 2021. Ultimately, he resigned his employment and continued to pursue the schemes he had begun while supposedly working on Angel Studios’ behalf. Since that time, Pelo has made every effort to sabotage Angel Studios’ most valuable economic relationships.”

It is unclear if Gigafund, the VC behind funding Angel Studios, was notified of the split in the company, and the loss of the main asset. I reached out to Gigafund, but have yet to receive a response.

So, Mormon-owned Angel Studios has a complaint against their fellow Mormon, Brad Pelo. How does that reflect on The Chosen? Didn’t Dallas Jenkins, an avowed Evangelical Christian, claim multiple times, on his social media--and the show's social media--that the Mormons were not involved in his show. He "answered" questions to his (largely Evangelical/Protestant) funders. (Report)

Yet, his new President is a Mormon heavy-hitter.

Additionally, according to the complaint filed by Angel Studios,

“During the premiere of Episode 6 at a major industry conference in June 2021, The Chosen, LLC (TCLLC) surprised everyone with an announcement that filming of The Chosen (TC) Season 3 was to be delayed until the next year. While Pelo had been working closely with TCLLC in his role as Chief Distribution Officer, he had not informed anybody at Angel Studios about TCLLC’s plan to delay Season 3 until right before the announcement. Angel Studios' executive team could not imagine any good reason for delay, since Season 3 already had sufficient funding to begin production (TCLLC claimed the finished scripts needed to be re-written, but refused to send the scripts to Angel). The surprise delay upset Angel Studios, as well as the actors who had organized their schedules to begin filming in a matter of weeks.

The delay of Season 3 has cost over $150 million in lost revenues and momentum for Angel Studios”

As cited in the suit, the estimated financial loss in all of this is interesting, considering the ongoing “pay-it-forward” crowdfunding campaign both The Chosen and Angel Studios are still actively promoting. According to the suit, Angel Studios anticipated a whopping $2.5 Billion in revenue for the remaining seasons.

$2.5 Billion Dollars in revenue—much by donations, crowdfunding and “swag” in the Name of Jesus.

Angel Studios would go on to claim that Pelo was pushing for other avenues for donations, aside from those already established by the Studio. By October 2022, a month within the suit, Derral Eves and Dallas Jenkins of The Chosen, collaborated with Brad Pelo, to create another avenue of fundraising and donations outside those of Angel Studios, “The Come and See Foundation” (Report).

Interestingly, the suit cited above seems to have been settle out of court, but if it was not—the new collaboration with Lionsgate might just be what opens Pandora’s box again.

If not this report.

It is the right of all men to inform themselves. I hope I have aided you in doing so.