The Hunt - The Most Dangerous Game: Twitter Edition

[Red Hood]

Nice headline, Fox.

Fucking idiots. Do you even know what the word "blockbuster" means? You can't call a movie a "blockbuster" if it hasn't come out yet.

In this case it may be because, like Blockbuster video, it's no longer there.

 

[Wazzupnerds]

And where was this outrage during the last few Purge movies when it was clear whose side those movies were on? Do the right just like being portrayed as villains?

The latest purge got shit becuase of the maga hat poster

also the Photoshop is noticeable as fuck lmao

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Variety reported on Saturday morning that Swank said she wouldn't discuss the film while at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. “No one’s seen the film. You can’t really have a conversation about it without understanding what it’s about," she said.

"We're trying to start a conversation!" Get fucked, bitch.

I don't care if you made a dumb exploitation movie about hunting Trump supporters, but be fucking honest about it and stop pretending that you've created some brilliant satire.

 

[Wazzupnerds]

Daily reminder that Starship Troopers is the best political satire film

 

[UQ 770]

'The Hunt' canceled by Universal following significant backlash

Fuck me that was fast.

 

[Skin and Bones]

Normally I would think this film was going to be satire about how quick people are to justify terrible things against political opponents because they're seen as the bad guys, but it's from Hollywood and it got cancaled anyway so who knows?

 

[nonvir_1984]

I'm waiting for it to be posted on line and the torrent sites to get it. But really. Can't they just not watch it? Its not as if people are being tied down...and no one's going to watch one movie and think, "I know what I'm going to do this afternoon....'

 

[Burning Fanatic]

"We're trying to start a conversation!" Get fucked, bitch.

I don't care if you made a dumb exploitation movie about hunting Trump supporters, but be fucking honest about it and stop pretending that you've created some brilliant satire.

Oh yeah, haven't heard that one before. I love how they're pretending to make this shitty horror film bring people together, when in reality, most people are just going to argue over it.

Hollywood loves to act like they're mindless blockbusters exist as some form of high art.

 

[Commander X]

Oh man, and I was so looking forward to maybe checking out The Purger Games if I was bored in a year or so and it was on Hulu...oh wait, that will still probably happen.

 

[Ahriman]

Oh so it' the most dangerous game with a political slant?

Pretty much. I haven't watched the original, but a few of its "sequels"; Hard Target, Turkey Shoot, Deadly Prey, Mindhunters, and Surviving The Game.

Punishment Park is another interesting one that I can definitely see someone going full "yes let's remake this one, but about the ICE!"

 

[Maamtis]

Reports are saying that Universal decided to pull the film because of the controversy AND because of anti-gun spergs.

So, yeah, the pearl clutchers won ... But from both exceptional sides.

Now the rest of us miss out on all the fun of the controversy.

Normally I would think this film was going to be satire about how quick people are to justify terrible things against political opponents because they're seen as the bad guys, but it's from Hollywood and it got cancaled anyway so who knows?

Makes me think the reason it was cancelled is because it would be damaging to their side politically.

 

[Gordon Cole]

Pretty much. I haven't watched the original, but a few of its "sequels"; Hard Target, Turkey Shoot, Deadly Prey, Mindhunters, and Surviving The Game.

Punishment Park is another interesting one that I can definitely see someone going full "yes let's remake this one, but about the ICE!"

https://youtube.com/watch?v=suh2r2ojP3I

You get a Winner because not enough people have seen Punishment Park.

And yeah, I wouldn't be shocked if they do something like The Interview where it's select theaters/on demand instead of a nationwide release.

 

[MarineTrainedTard]

Fuck me, man, everyone is a giant fucking baby these days.

You got the far left bitching about... well, everything, and now this? I'd expect some left wing group crying about gun violence, come on now.

Seems like the right is losing their grounds for calling people snowflakes.

 

[Gordon Cole]

Exclusive: Universal’s Decision to Cancel ‘The Hunt’ Release Was Made Before Trump Criticism

The studio had already made the decision to pull the film even before the President started tweeting about it.

The decision by Universal to remove Blumhouse Prods.’ “The Hunt” from its planned September 27 release had the earmarks for a knee-jerk reaction to the controversy provoked by Fox Cable News and Donald Trump. However, sources tell IndieWire that although the announcement came after the strategically executed uproar, the choice to cancel the date had already been made.

By the morning of August 5 — just after the El Paso and Dayton massacres, and four days before the film’s official cancellation — banners for “The Hunt” were dismantled on the Universal lot in Los Angeles. This is different than pulling TV spots; in terms of studio protocol, it is almost always a sign of a film will be dropped from release.

The complications of scrapping a release date involves both internal and external niceties as well as financial issues. Like most studios, Universal isn’t imperious about its creative partners, and needed a period for consultation. Advertising buys were already committed; negotiating with outlets about their rescheduling or replacement isn’t simple. And the PR strategy for explaining the move also is critical.

However, Universal lost the ability to appear proactive rather than reactive. By midweek, conservative media, then presidential comments, turned the film into a cause celebre with the shared agenda of taking blame for the tragedies off of racism, or ease of gun availability, to video games and violent movies.

A satire from a production company known for hitting the zeitgeist jackpot with inventive, contemporary films like “Get Out,” “Us,” “BlackKklansman,” “The Purge” franchise and others, “The Hunt” involves a group of heavily armed rich people hunting down rural locals as an organized game. The plot is the latest iteration of the famous 1924 Richard Connell short story, “The Most Dangerous Game.” Adaptations include the 1932 version of the same name (made on the “King Kong” set by its creators, and with two of the same actors — it’s a Criterion Collection title) and another directed by Robert Wise in 1945 (“A Game of Death”), among others; “The Hunger Games” uses the same basic plot.

In all cases, the villains are the pursuers; the heroes are the pursued. Sources say “The Hunt” portrays rich left-wingers hunting internet conspiracy theorists; the idea promoted by Fox News, which sparked right-wing outrage inflamed by the White House, was the movie encouraged the idea of hunting down conservatives.

Whatever its intent, a film in which one group of Americans targets another with weaponry was seen as an inappropriate release given recent mass shootings. (Finding a time period when this doesn’t happen could be a challenge.) Also, the current, super-charged political culture would mean facing reactions based on misconceptions. Potential targets might include a theater playing the film.

The appearance of bending to pressure is disheartening, and it reinforces the notion that it is best to go with the familiar and predictable than to take a risk. Playwright George Kaufman famously said that satire is what closes on Saturday night; today, it is tricky to even open one.

“The Hunt” now joins a long list of films that chose to change its release plans in the face of real-life tragedies. “Dr. Strangelove” was scheduled for a December 1963 release to qualify for awards, but was delayed until 1964 by the JFK assassination. In 2002, “Phone Booth,” with its theme of a sniper killing innocent people, was delayed for a year after a similar crime spree around Washington, D.C. The 2007 UK release of “Gone Baby Gone” was postponed by six months in the face of a similar child-murder case. Don Siegel’s “The Killers” was scheduled to be the first made-for-TV Universal movie early in 1964, but its violence led the studio to switch it to theatrical. And when Ronald Reagan became politically active, he asked them to halt showings of the film since he played a bad guy.

More recently, Universal held to its release dates for Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” in 1989, which faced flak over (dubious) claims of possible incendiary provocation, and for Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which faced major protests from conservative religious figures. Both went on to be released without incident — but there was neither social media, a president weighing in, nor a specter of mass slaughter in the news.

If “The Hunt” is never released, that would be a horrible precedent. The studio does have its upcoming streaming platform, where this could easily play. Sony’s “The Interview” had both a theatrical and VOD day- and date run in December 2014, with $6 million in theatrical and $44 million in VOD grosses. “The Hunt” is reported to have cost somewhere in the $10-15 million range before marketing.

With prime film festivals just ahead, one possible course is to premiere the film, perhaps unannounced; Telluride would be ideal, but Toronto and others are also possible, or even Sundance, where “The Hunt” director Craig Zobel has premiered all three of his other films.

The issues of crisis management here are petty compared to the lost lives and increased threat of similar events. It’s hard to fault Universal for taking this action, even if the timing make it appeared they made it unwillingly. If nothing else, its future release could serve to prove some people jumped to conclusions.

Eric Kohn contributed to this report.

Exclusive: Universal’s Decision to Cancel ‘The Hunt’ Release Was Made Before Trump Criticism

The studio had already made the decision to pull the film even before the President started tweeting about it.

www.indiewire.com

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Exclusive: Universal’s Decision to Cancel ‘The Hunt’ Release Was Made Before Trump Criticism

The studio had already made the decision to pull the film even before the President started tweeting about it.

www.indiewire.com

Mashing X hard here, given Hollywood being Hollywood.

 

[frozenrunner]

Exclusive: Universal’s Decision to Cancel ‘The Hunt’ Release Was Made Before Trump Criticism

The studio had already made the decision to pull the film even before the President started tweeting about it.

www.indiewire.com

"G-gronald Glumpf has no power or influence at all! That that, Drumphkins! #NotMyPresident"

 

[Scratch This Nut]

"G-gronald Glumpf has no power or influence at all! That that, Drumphkins! #NotMyPresident"

Oh I believe them. I expected them to use Trump’s condemnation of the film to market it.

 

[Gordon Cole]

This is interesting:

‘The Hunt’ Director Breaks Silence on Film’s Cancellation (EXCLUSIVE)

Craig Zobel, director of “The Hunt,” hopes that the controversial political thriller will eventually be seen by audiences, and argues that its message has been misrepresented in media reports.

Zobel spoke for the first time since Universal canceled the film’s release on Aug. 10, in the wake of a series of mass shootings and amid a mounting conservative backlash.

The film depicts a group of elites who hunt “deplorables” for sport. Fox News commentators have condemned it as “sick” and “awful.”

In response to a series of emailed questions, Zobel said he had no intention to inflame political conflict, which has led to a series of murderous incidents in recent years.

“If I believed this film could incite violence, I wouldn’t have made it,” he wrote.

He said that the film does not take sides politically, and that his goal was instead to satirize “both sides” of the partisan divide.

“Our ambition was to poke at both sides of the aisle equally,” he wrote. “We seek to entertain and unify, not enrage and divide. It is up to the viewers to decide what their takeaway will be.”

Universal suspended the marketing campaign for the film after the mass shootings in Gilroy, Calif., El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. In the wake of that decision, conservatives blasted the film as a “liberal fantasy.” Even President Trump weighed in, denouncing Hollywood’s “racism” and saying the film aimed “to inflame and cause chaos.”

Zobel said the film has been misunderstood. He said it was actually about partisanship, and how both sides fail to fully hear their opponents’ views.

“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,” he wrote. “This rush to judgment is one of the most relevant problems of our time.”

“The Hunt” has become a rare black eye for Blumhouse, one of the most successful production companies in the movie business. Founder Jason Blum has had a golden touch with genre films like “Get Out” and “The First Purge,” which traffic in edgy political themes.

But with the “The Hunt,” that approach has backfired. Executives appear to have underestimated the risks of political satire in the heightened atmosphere of the Trump administration.

The studio didn’t seem to have a clearly defined marketing plan for “The Hunt,” which was marketed as a straight-up thriller, with little hint of its political overtones.

Zobel praised Universal for taking a “risk on greenlighting a film not based on prior intellectual property.” He said that the script did not change significantly during its production and he said that he faced no pressure to tone down the film’s politics.

He also said he supported the studio’s decision to delay its release in light of the gun massacres on Aug. 3 and 4 that left 31 people dead.

“I was devastated by going to sleep to El Paso and waking up to Dayton,” he wrote. “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.”


Universal has not screened the film for critics, so the political content of the final cut is still largely a matter of conjecture. An early draft of the script obtained by Variety makes clear that the original intention was to depict working-class conservatives as the heroes. They are kidnapped and hunted by “liberal elites,” one of whom says “Climate change is real” before blowing his victim away. One of the good guys talks about the “Deep State,” and another fantasizes about going on “Hannity” to expose the conspiracy.

The script was written by Nick Cuse, a 29-year-old Harvard grad, and Damon Lindelof, a veteran TV producer and a prolific donor to Democratic presidential candidates. Cuse is a registered Republican who nevertheless gave to Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2017. He was a writer on Lindelof’s HBO show “The Leftovers,” and is the son of producer Carlton Cuse, who ran “Lost” with Lindelof.

Blum is also a generous supporter of Democrats, and has made no secret of his disdain for the president.

The movie’s extreme gore would have made it controversial anyway in the aftermath of the El Paso and Dayton shootings, but its political themes — however misunderstood — made it radioactive. According to the Daily Beast, Trump groused at the White House about “the movie” made by “people who hate Trump.”

“When the focus of your film is about killing, hunting people down, you’re going to have to answer hard questions about why you’re releasing a film like that in today’s climate,” said Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “I think Universal just didn’t want to deal with the spin control which would have likely overtaken and overrun their publicity department.”

In a statement to Variety, Universal pushed back on a report that a test audiences had been uncomfortable with the film’s political slant, and also countered claims that the script had originally had a politically explosive title.

“While some outlets have indicated that test screenings for ‘The Hunt’ resulted in negative audience feedback; in fact, the film was very well-received and tallied one of the highest test scores for an original Blumhouse film,” a Universal spokesperson said. “Additionally, no audience members in attendance at the test screening expressed discomfort with any political discussion in the film. While reports also say ‘The Hunt’ was formerly titled ‘Red State vs. Blue State,’ that was never the working title for the film at any point throughout the development process, nor appeared on any status reports under that name.”

As for Zobel, he said he hoped that the film would become a teachable moment, allowing audiences to think about how politics became so polarized.

“My hope would be that people will reflect on why we are in this moment, where we don’t have any desire to listen to each other,” he said. “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?”

‘The Hunt’ Director Breaks Silence on Film’s Cancellation (EXCLUSIVE)

Craig Zobel, director of “The Hunt,” hopes that the controversial political thriller will eventually be seen by audiences, and argues that its message has been misrepresented in media r…

variety.com

Some key takeaways:

• It's supposed to take the piss out of both sides, showing how the left and the right need to lol calm down and end the us v. them mentality.
• It's written by Damon Lindelof (Democrat, natch) and Nick Cuse (A registered Republican).
• Once test audiences actually watched the movie, they didn't have a problem with it.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

This is interesting:

‘The Hunt’ Director Breaks Silence on Film’s Cancellation (EXCLUSIVE)

Craig Zobel, director of “The Hunt,” hopes that the controversial political thriller will eventually be seen by audiences, and argues that its message has been misrepresented in media r…

variety.com

Some key takeaways:

• It's supposed to take the piss out of both sides, showing how the left and the right need to lol calm down and end the us v. them mentality.
• It's written by Damon Lindelof (Democrat, natch) and Nick Cuse (A registered Republican).
• Once test audiences actually watched the movie, they didn't have a problem with it.

Shame, I would have liked to see it.

 

[Ebonic Tutor]

This is interesting:

‘The Hunt’ Director Breaks Silence on Film’s Cancellation (EXCLUSIVE)

Craig Zobel, director of “The Hunt,” hopes that the controversial political thriller will eventually be seen by audiences, and argues that its message has been misrepresented in media r…

variety.com

Some key takeaways:

• It's supposed to take the piss out of both sides, showing how the left and the right need to lol calm down and end the us v. them mentality.
• It's written by Damon Lindelof (Democrat, natch) and Nick Cuse (A registered Republican).
• Once test audiences actually watched the movie, they didn't have a problem with it.

I expect it'll leak in this digital age we live in at least. When that happens I'll definitely give it a watch, this really sounds like a case of a film just being marketed completely wrong.