Anonymous activist claims responsibility for blaze at DeKalb film studio: ‘May this be a warning to them’

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - Firefighters in DeKalb County are investigating a suspicious fire on the lot of a movie studio at the center of an environmental fight.

DeKalb County Fire and Rescue’s spokesperson said the fire at Shadowbox Studios has not been ruled an arson, but the investigation continues after a cryptic blog post from an anonymous author surfaced, claiming responsibility for it. 

"May this be a warning to them, a small taste of what’s to come if they attempt to expand south of the river," the blog post read. "We don’t like movies. We don’t like screens. We are in the real world: Unseen to the Hypno-Dystopic Civilization around us. Somewhere among shadow and tree."

On Friday, SKYFOX 5 captured the damage done to the trailer on the massive lot after it caught fire earlier this week. 

"Over the weekend, there was a small fire in the mechanical room of an isolated bathroom structure, which was promptly extinguished," said a spokesperson from Shadowbox Studios. 

The fire comes as the studio is planning a half-billion-dollar expansion of the lot, with plans to add 1.2 million square feet of production space. Some environmentalists have also been trying to put a halt to a DeKalb County land swap with the studio’s former owner Ryan Millsap, which would allow for the private development of Intrenchment Creek Park.

"There’s no reason to tear down these perfectly good trees in a critical moment in the fight against climate change," said a woman named Donna, who belongs to the Atlanta Community Press Collective, a group that is aligned with the environmentalists. 

Donna, who declined to give her last name, said the land neighbors on the proposed site of the controversial Atlanta police training center, dubbed "Cop City."

"It’s immediately adjacent. The property lines but up against each other. More holistically, they are part of the same forest," she said. "[The Shadowbox expansion] is harmful to legacy residents, the people who have lived in the area for generations. We don’t need this for the environment and people aren’t going to be able to afford to live there."

Earlier this week, FOX 5 reported on a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement probe into the "Stop Cop City" movement, members of whom police accuse of torching construction equipment and acts of vandalism in surrounding neighborhoods. 

Donna, with the Atlanta Community Press Collective, said the Stop Cop City movement does not function as a monolith and has varying ideologies and methods of protest.

The anonymous blog post author gestured at similar actions in the future. 

"We move by night. We watch the enemy," the blog post read. "We plan our strikes."

Although the GBI has confirmed its involvement in the probe of the Stop Cop City movement, it says it is not investigating the blaze at Shadowbox at this time.