Commercials for an ultra-violent political satire called “The Hunt” were reportedly pulled after the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings last weekend.
The movie features “elites” stalking and killing “deplorables,” a term Hillary Clinton called supporters of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
As Joseph Curl previously reported, “The violent, R-rated film from producer Jason Blum’s Blumhouse follows a dozen MAGA types who wake up in a clearing and realize they are being stalked for sport by elite liberals,” the Hollywood Reporter writes. Blumhouse is the studio behind “The Purge” horror-satire series.
Over the Aug. 3 weekend, ESPN pulled an ad for the film that it had previously cleared, while AMC ran the spot during the season premiere of its drama The Preacher. It’s unclear whether the ads were identical, but the one yanked by ESPN opened with a sound resembling an emergency broadcast signal. A rep for ESPN parent Disney declined to comment on the move, but an ESPN source says no spots for the film will appear on the network in the coming weeks.
Actress Hilary Swank and Betty Gilpin from “GLOW” star in the movie, in which the elites hunt down a group of 12 “ordinary” Americans, or as the Reporter writes, “MAGA types who wake up in a clearing and realize they are being stalked for sport by elite liberals.”
President Trump complained about the film in a press conference on Friday before leaving for vacation.
Trump, sweating profusely, says "Hollywood is racist … what they're doing with the kind of movies they're putting out — it's actually very dangerous for our country." pic.twitter.com/ALXznOJ1iv
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 9, 2019
On Saturday Universal announced it was cancelling the film’s release.
Via Mediaite:
The studio made the announcement Saturday in a statement that read “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.”
The same people who want you to give up the right to bear arms are the same people making movies about killing Trump supporters for sport. Think about it. https://t.co/M8sh3nkkIK
— Emerald Robinson ✝️ (@EmeraldRobinson) August 8, 2019
