12 February 2020
Newsdesk
Controversial film The Hunt will be finally be released in cinemas in March.
Universal executives paused the marketing campaign for the satirical thriller, which follows a group of liberal elites who try to track down and kill conservatives for sport, in August last year following mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.
Soon after, they decided to shelve its September release altogether due to the controversy, which made further headlines after U.S. President Trump tweeted that the political satire was made to "inflame and cause chaos".
On Tuesday, Universal bosses relaunched their marketing campaign for the film, releasing a brand-new poster and distinctively different trailer which features the words, "The most talked-about movie of the year is one nobody's seen yet... this March, decide for yourself."
They have also screened the film for a bunch of journalists, with producer Jason Blum explaining to Variety that the reporting on the controversy last year was inaccurate because nobody had seen it.
"We felt like everybody got it wrong because no one had seen the movie," he said. "It was the most talked-about movie that no one has ever seen. So, what both of us were very eager for people to see the movie and realise that the movie is 100 per cent satire and pokes fun at both sides equally. We wanted to see that represented in what people were writing about, but again, they couldn't because no one had seen it."
When asked why March was the right time to release it, co-writer and producer Damon Lindelof replied, "As more and more people start to see it, we've gained confidence in the fact that this is not a dangerous movie. This is not a provocative movie. This is not a divisive movie. I think the big shift between now and then is that more people have seen it and they've responded positively."
The Hunt, which stars Hilary Swank, Betty Gilpin, and Emma Roberts, will be released in U.S. cinemas on 13 March.
