Sometimes a film has a premise that is obviously going to cause an uproar. In fact, those types of films are pretty great for studios because half the marketing is done for them by people reporting on how crazy the plot of the film is. In the case of Blumhouse’s “The Hunt,” the talk over the premise of the film became so incendiary that it caused Universal to cancel the release. However, it would appear that tweets from President Trump and op-eds/criticism from conservative news outlets isn’t what fueled that decision.
According to IndieWire, sources close to the studio said that Universal already made the decision to pull “The Hunt” from its upcoming release date before all the criticism over the film’s problematic plot. For those not aware of “The Hunt,” the thriller follows the model of the classic story “The Most Dangerous Game” and features a premise where wealthy folks travel to a place where they can hunt humans for sport. However, the twist is that the film features wealthy liberal elites that are hunting rural Americans (the report says that they may be right-wing conspiracy theorists).
And in light of the recent mass murders in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas, you can understand why Universal probably saw fit to pull marketing and shelve the film for the time being. Unfortunately for the studio, before that announcement could happen, Trump and conservative media jumped all over the film, in light of the recent trend of blaming films for gun violence, saying how “The Hunt” promoted violence against Americans, specifically conservative Americans.
So, when the decision came down about the film not being released, it appeared that Universal bowed in submission to Trump and the media and pulled “The Hunt” based on a knee-jerk reaction. If that were the case, that would set a pretty terrible precedent. However, if the report is to be believed, that wasn’t the case.
That being said, there aren’t any plans for “The Hunt” to come to theaters anytime soon. You would have to guess at this point that if Universal releases the film, it’ll be some minor, straight-to-VOD strategy, with little promotion. If the studio instead keeps the film on the shelf forever, then it would likely embolden those opponents and we could be looking at a really interesting new paradigm where the President can influence films’ release dates.
