The Hunt (film)

About

The Hunt is an satirical horror film that was believed to have been scrapped. The film, which follows a group of people who have been kidnapped and hunted by a secret organization of coastal elites, was later shelved after President Donald Trump complained about the film's plot on Twitter. The film was eventually released six months later.

History

On March 28th, 2018, Deadline^[1] reported that Universal and Blumhouse had purchased the "charged thriller" The Hunt. The film was to be written by Lost Leftovers creator Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse.

The following year, on July 30th, 2019, the YouTube channel Movieclips Trailers uploaded the trailer for the film. Within two months, the video received more than 1 million views (shown below).

Reception

Cancelation

On August 6th, following mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, The Hollywood Reporter^[4] reported that Universal had begun pulling advertisement for the film. They wrote, "While one high-level Universal source says the studio has pulled some ads that are beginning to air and appear online 'for content and placement,' others say the matter is still under discussion internally."

That week, Fox News began running a series of news articles about the film, focusing on the film's plot.^[5][6] On August 9th, a segment about the film appeared on The Ingraham Angle, a Fox commentary series.

On August 9th, 2019, President Donald Trump tweeted, ^[2] "Liberal Hollywood is Racist at the highest level, and with great Anger and Hate! They like to call themselves “Elite,” but they are not Elite. In fact, it is often the people that they so strongly oppose that are actually the Elite. The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos. They create their own violence, and then try to blame others. They are the true Racists, and are very bad for our Country!" The initial tweet received more than 155,000 likes, 36,000 retweets and 29,000 comments (shown below).

While Trump did not name the film by name, the Washington Post^[3] reported that the film was most likely The Hunt.

The following day, Universal canceled the release of The Hunt. On the film's website, they posted an explanation, writing:

While Universal pictures had already paused the marketing campaign for The Hunt, after thoughtful consideration, the studio has decided to cancel our plans to release the film. We stand by our filmmakers and will continue to distribute films in partnership with bold and visionary creators, like those associated with this satirical social thriller, but we understand that now is not the right time to release this film.

Re-emergence

Although it was thought that the film had been entirely scrapped, it turned out to rather be a delay. Six months later, on March 13, 2020, the film was released.

Search Interest

External References