THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 20 FEBRUA RY 12, 2020
GILPIN: UNIVERSAL/EVERETT COLLECTION.HUNT: COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES. BLUM: MORGAN LIEBERMAN/GETTY IMAGES.Behind the HeadlinesThe Report
Jason Blum and Damon Lindelof explain why satirical thriller The Hunt, which had been shelved
by Universal in August after a trio of mass shootings, will now get a theatrical run March 13
BY KIM MASTERS‘We Just Felt Like the Movie
Was Being Misunderstood’
T
he Hunt, the satirical
thriller that depicts
“elites” kidnapping and
then hunting “deplorables,” is
now set for release March 13 after
Universal pulled the film from its
September opening in the wake
of mass shootings that shook the
nation. Following those attacks,
Universal and producer Jason
Blum decided to pause the ad
campaign for the film. But after
THR and other outlets reported
on the film’s premise, it gener-
ated instant controversy. Fox
News pilloried the concept, and
the movie was attacked (though
not by name) in a President
Tr u m p tweet.
Now Universal is going to
release and market the film with
attitude: A one-sheet reads, “The
most talked about movie of the
year is one that no one’s actually
seen,” with its original release
date crossed out and blurbs
highlighting news coverage of the
scrapped release. In an interview
with THR, Blum and screen-
writer Damon Lindelof — who
shares credit on The Hunt withLindelof’s Watchm en collabora-
tor Nick Cuse — defend the film
as an over-the-top, satirical take
on the divided state of the union
that is even-handed in its sendup
of the opposing factions. “None of
us was interested in taking sides
with this movie,” Blum says.
Directed by Craig Zobel, The
Hunt follows Hilary Swank as the
ringleader of a gang of wealthy
snobs trying to wipe out a group
of assorted individuals who have
posted right-wing views online.
Though the “elites” supply their
prey with guns, the playing
field is not level. But one woman
(Betty Gilpin) turns the tables on
the killers.Texas, California and Ohio. As the
controversy intensified, the film’s
release was postponed. “It’s prob-
ably the most-judged movie that’s
ever existed that everyone who
judged it hadn’t seen,” says Blum,
who was receiving threats. “We
weren’t going to win the conver-
sation around that, and so it was
our decision, in holding hands
with Universal, to take the movie
off the schedule.”
Adds Lindelof: “For us, there
was just a fundamental frustra-
tion that nobody was talking
about the movie. They were all
talking about what their per-
ception of the movie was — a
perception that was largely
formed based on all the events
in the aftermath of the horrific
weekend before. [But] we really
don’t want to be pointing fin-
gers, and, more importantly, we
don’t want to be wagging fingers
at anyone for overreacting or
reacting incorrectly. We just felt
like the movie was being mis-
understood.” Blum and Lindelof
say after a test screening just a
couple of days after the shootings,
the audience did not draw any
connection to the tragedies. “No
one who has seen the movie has
described the movie as provoca-
tive,” Lindelof says.
Lindelof says he and Cuse w rote
the script on spec, and CAA, his
agency at the time, shopped it as
a package with Zobel attached
and with a budget of $18 million.
(With tax credits, Universal’s net
budget was $14 million.) While
Lindelof says he was told other
studios were interested, he and
Cuse wanted to make the film
with Blum because their inspira-
tion was Jordan Peele’s Get Out,
which Blum produced. Asked
whether there was any pushback
from Universal about the film’s
intense violence coupled with its
political themes, Blum says, “It
was read as a satire, no different
from Joker or other movies that
are violent,” he says. “It was read
as a movie that didn’t take sides.”
He analogized The Hunt with
his successful The Purge fran-
chise, saying, “The audience is
smart enough to know that what
they’re seeing is a satire, and
it’s preposterous.”Borys Kit contributed to this report.Characters in the film, which
THR has seen, are graphically
dispatched in various ways:
shot with a bullet to the head
or an arrow; impaled on metal
spikes; pulverized with a gre-
nade in the pants;
poisoned and done
in with a stiletto
heel plunged into an
eyeball. Given the
intense violence on
the screen, The Hunt is certain to
earn an R rating. Universal plans
to open it on 3,000 screens.
Universal and Blumhouse
pulled ads for the movie in
August in the aftermath of a
string of mass shootings inA new poster
for The Hunt
leans into the
controversy.BlumBlumhouse’s Universal Films in 2019
Source: Comscore global figuresGlass
$247MHappy Death Day 2U
$64.6MMa
$61.1MBlack Christmas
$18.5MM. Night Shyamalan’s sequel
to 2016’s Split (and 2002’s
Unbreakable) led Blumhouse’s
theatrical slate of 10-plus films.