Why Universal Shelved 'The Hunt' | THR News - video Dailymotion

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A politically charged satire denounced by Trump and the right sparked menacing emails as its violent marketing ran squarely into horrific news of a trio of mass shootings.

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00:00Every year a bunch of elites kidnap normal folk like us.

00:05Where'd they get you from?

00:06Wyoming.

00:07Mississippi.

00:08Orlando.

00:09And hunt us for sport.

00:11Universal has shelved its recent release of The Hunt.

00:13The reason?

00:14Executives and filmmakers had started to receive death threats.

00:17The film, a thriller satire directed by Craig Zobel, chronicles a dozen so-called deplorables

00:23trying to outlast a group of private jet-flying elites bent on killing their anti-choice gun-loving targets.

00:29Following a THR story earlier that day on the altering of the film's marketing plan

00:33in the wake of a trio of mass shootings, Universal executives and filmmakers began receiving death threats

00:38via email and on social media and immediately paused the campaign altogether.

00:43Sources say the studio's internal security force became involved, but outside law enforcement

00:48was not alerted.

00:49It seems Universal didn't anticipate the maelstrom to come, which included round-the-clock

00:54Fox News segments and tweets by President Trump seemingly directed at the title.

00:59In an August 6 test screening at a crowded theater in the San Fernando Valley, some audience

01:04members again expressed discomfort with the politics of the Jason Blum-produced film.

01:09In the current climate, where numerous mass shootings have featured politically motivated language,

01:13the film formally titled Red State vs. Blue State seemed to throw a match on gasoline.

01:18By August 10, the studio had scrapped the release entirely, leaving its future in limbo, though

01:23it may still get an international release.

01:25The studio had kept details of the script by Nick Hughes and Damon Lindahl secret and didn't

01:30feature any of the overt political themes in its marketing materials, even as it advertised

01:34the film during Democratic debates and on Tucker Carlson's Fox show.

01:38Sources say the studio leadership was reluctant to cave to the outrage of those who have not

01:43seen the finished film, but the mass shootings changed the calculus, rendering what studio sources

01:48believe was a biting satire into a project so toxic it wasn't worth the headaches.

01:53Bloom is said to have been on board with the decision to scrap it for now and move forward.

01:57For more updates, head to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Ben Myers.

02:04I'm Ben Myers.

Why Universal Shelved 'The Hunt' | THR News

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