The Universal / Blumhouse collaboration THE HUNT had been moving steadily forward toward a September 27th theatrical release until a stream of mass shootings caused the distributor to pull the film from their release schedule. There's still no word on when we'll get to see THE HUNT, or how it will be released when they finally it put out into the world. Will it still reach theatres, or will it appear on a streaming service? Universal hasn't said.
What we do know is that Universal didn't feel releasing THE HUNT soon after the real world tragedies was appropriate because the screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse tells the following story:
Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing. They don’t know where they are, or how they got there. They don't know they've been chosen… for a very specific purpose… The Hunt.
In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, a group of globalist elites gathers for the very first time at a remote Manor House to hunt humans for sport. But the elites’ master plan is about to be derailed because one of the hunted, Crystal, knows The Hunters’ game better than they do. She turns the tables on the killers, picking them off, one by one, as she makes her way toward the mysterious woman at the center of it all.
When the release was cancelled, further information on the plot revealed that it's about wealthy liberals hunting working class conservatives.
While we wait to hear what the future has in store for THE HUNT, producer Jason Blum and director Craig Zobel have both commented on the cancellation of the September release.
Blum confirmed to Vulture that there is "definitely a chance" of THE HUNT being released in the future, and he hopes it will be. He said,
If I was offered the choice to make the movie again, I would say yes. We definitely made marketing mistakes, and we made plenty of mistakes along the way. So I’ve learned a lot. It might change how I would position movies and how I would consult on the marketing of the movies. But actually the making of the movies? No."
Zobel told Variety that he didn't intend for the film to cause conflict between liberals and conservatives, and that THE HUNT itself doesn't take sides in that political argument – instead, it's a satire of both sides.
Our ambition was to poke at both sides of the aisle equally. We seek to entertain and unify, not enrage and divide. It is up to the viewers to decide what their takeaway will be. I wanted to make a fun, action thriller that satirized this moment in our culture — where we jump to assume we know someone’s beliefs because of which ‘team’ we think they’re on… and then start shouting at them. This rush to judgment is one of the most relevant problems of our time."
Zobel said he wouldn't have made the film if he thought it could incite violence, but he does support the decision not to release it at this time.
I was devastated by going to sleep to El Paso and waking up to Dayton. These types of moments happen far too often. In the wake of these horrific events, we immediately considered what it meant for the timing of our film. Once inaccurate assumptions about the content and intent of the movie began to take hold, I supported the decision to move the film off its release date."
THE HUNT stars Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank, Emma Roberts, Ike Barinholtz, Amy Madigan, and Ethan Suplee. I'm sure it will see a release of some kind eventually, but in the meantime Zobel hopes
that people will reflect on why we are in this moment, where we don’t have any desire to listen to each other. And if I’m lucky some of us will ask each other: how did we get here? And where do we want to go moving forward?"
We'll let you know when there's any news about a release for this film.