In the wake of the most recent mass shootings in the United States, Universal has decided to pull The Hunt from their release schedule.
Multiple outlets, including Variety, report the news of the Blumhouse's The Hunt being pulled from Universal's September 27th release slot. Here's the official statement from Universal (via Variety):
“While Universal Pictures had already paused the marketing campaign for The Hunt, after thoughtful consideration, the studio has decided to cancel our plans to release the film. We stand by our filmmakers and will continue to distribute films in partnership with bold and visionary creators, like those associated with this satirical social thriller, but we understand that now is not the right time to release this film.”
It's unclear at this time whether or not The Hunt will find another source of distribution, or if Universal will release it at a later date, but we'll be sure to keep Daily Dead readers updated on further developments.
Directed by Craig Zobel from a screenplay by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof, The Hunt stars Betty Gilpin, Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts, and Hilary Swank.
For those unfamiliar with the film, we have the official synopsis below (the trailer has been pulled from Universal's YouTube account):
"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 bunch of 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 (Betty Gilpin, GLOW), 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 (two-time Oscar® winner Hilary Swank) at the center of it all.
From Jason Blum, the producer of Get Out and The Purge series, and Damon Lindelof, co-creator of the TV series The Leftovers and Lost, comes a new mysterious social thriller.
The Hunt is written by Lindelof and his fellow The Leftovers’ collaborator Nick Cuse and is directed by Craig Zobel (Z for Zachariah, The Leftovers). Blum produces for his Blumhouse Productions alongside Lindelof. The film is executive produced by Zobel, Cuse and Steven R. Molen."
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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