Blumhouse productions was about to release The Hunt when Universal Pictures announcement revealed the releasing had been cancelled due to the recent mass shootings in the US and Donald Trump’s criticism.
The Hunt is a horror, satirical thriller written by Nick Cuse and Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof and it stars Emma Roberts, Hilary Swank and Betty Glipin.
The thriller plot, which follows the story of 12 red-state people who wake up in a glade and they start being hunted by liberals, was apparently condemned by the US president on Twitter, saying the film was created to “inflame and cause chaos”. “What Hollywood is doing is a tremendous disservice to our country”, Trump said about the US film industry.
However, Trump’s thoughts about the film were shared after the distributor had already “temporarily paused” The Hunt promotion following El Paso and Dayton’s extremist gun massacres.
The Hunt has also been receiving backlash from Fox &Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt, who shares Trump and distributor’s sentiment about how the film can be “very dangerous for our country”. That brought Universal to a re-evaluation of the horror thriller and is now standing between denouncing gun violence while, at the same time, continuing with the production of violent films and TV content.
At the Lorcano Film Festival in Switzerland, Hilary Swank refused to talk about the controversial film, saying “No one’s seen the film. You can’t really have a conversation about it without understanding what it’s about”.
After Universal’s announcement, many people were still supporting the idea of releasing the film and claimed on social media that the plot had been misunderstood. “Liberals on social media seemed to interpret it as sympathetic to racist MAGA types, while the conservative bubble interpreted it as liberal wish fulfillment. Everyone was p***ed. And everyone was wrong” said Robin Schweiger, who has actually read the script.
There is no clue about what will happen with The Hunt but, hopefully, new announcements will be published anytime soon.
#Peace.Love.TheHunt
