Child-trafficking drama 'City of Dreams' aims to 'wake people up,' says EP Tony Robbins

A year after "Sound of Freedom" shook up Hollywood's summer box office and prompted a call to action against child trafficking, a new drama seeks to call attention to the same cause. 

"City of Dreams," which opened Friday and is distributed by Roadside Attractions production company, tells the story of Jesús, a Mexican boy whose soccer dreams are abruptly crushed when he is trafficked across the U.S. border into Los Angeles and forced into sweatshop enslavement.

Life and business coach Tony Robbins, an executive producer of the film, and director Mohit Ramchandani appeared Wednesday on "Jesse Watters Primetime" to detail their hope the film will serve as a "call to action" and "wake people up."

"On the previous film, ‘Sound of Freedom’… we had the same situation," Robbins said. "You know, on July 4th weekend last year, we beat out Disney with all their money because people were so moved by the film. And my wife and I have been involved in this for eight years. It's not a side-hustle for us that we do. We've freed a little more than 50,000 children." 

"We funded the freedom of them, and we've actually gone out on those. I've gone undercover with scars on my face — the ugliest things you could ever imagine in your life happening to our children, but also the beauty is when they're freed," Robbins said. 

Ramchandani, the film's director, recounted to Fox News host Jesse Watters that his father had worked under sweatshop-like conditions when he was 7 years old, explaining that "the idea was always there." 

After moving to America and becoming a filmmaker, Ramchandani read a case involving 72 immigrants who were trapped in a house in El Monte, Calif., just 40 minutes from his home.

"I was disgusted, I got into it and I couldn't believe how much of it was happening," Ramchandani said. "It wasn't at the time when I wrote the script years ago being reported in the mainstream media, and I contacted a friend who connected me with someone in the Labor Department, and he was saying, 'Hey, there are tons of these cases of kids who are trapped in houses in the Bay Area, and they're making products.' And so that was really my motivation is, I couldn't believe that this was happening here." 

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Former 2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also a producer for the film, previously spoke with Fox News Digital, sharing what viewers can expect.

"It is something that will take you out of your comfort zone as you learn just about how pervasive this issue really is, not just in other parts of the world, but right here at home in the United States," Ramaswamy said.

Sean Wolfington, the executive producer of "Sound of Freedom," is also a producer for "City of Dreams"; Mira Sorvino was named executive producer as well. 

Other notable ambassadors of the film include Sylvester Stallone, Martin Sheen, Kathie Lee Gifford, Pat Riley, Katheryn Winnick and Marisol Nichols, according to Roadside Attractions.

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According to the U.S. Department of State, an estimated 27.6 million people worldwide were victims of trafficking as of 2023. 

An interim report released on Aug. 20 showed that over the past five years, more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children are no longer accounted for by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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Robbins told Watters when there's "10 million people, 11 million coming over the border, and you hear them talking about 300,000 children we've misplaced, we don't know where they are, it's too big."

"But when you follow one child's life, and especially this one because it's a thriller and keeps you on the edge of your seat, but also it's a hero's journey, because this young man, against all odds, not only frees himself, but everybody else too," he said. 

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"It's a call to action to wake people up to what's really happening," Robbins said. "Think about slavery. 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is what changed slavery. It was a storyteller that upset people enough that people wouldn't put up with it anymore. That's what we hope this is the beginning of."

Fox News Digital's Gabriele Regalbuto and Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.