The Hunt is back on. After being shelved last year in the wake of two tragic mass shootings on the same weekend in August, the Universal and Blumhouse co-production has set a new release date, March 13, and been outfitted with a new trailer and poster that really lean into the scandal ginned up by conservative media and, naturally, the president, that lambasted the movie as a piece of racist liberal propaganda. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, producer Jason Blum leaned all the way into the movie’s new marketing angle, saying “It’s probably the most judged movie that’s ever existed that everyone who judged it hadn’t seen.†(We can have a separate chat about movies that have been literally banned from public view some other time.) The Hunt’s co-writer Damon Lindelof, coming fresh off his astounding season of Watchmen for HBO, added that, “We think that people who see it are going to enjoy it and this may be a way to shine a light on a very serious problem in the country, which is that we’re divided. And we think the movie may actually, ironically, bring people together.â€
For a refresher, the premise of the movie is that a bunch of normal-seeming folks are black bagged and dropped on a big compound where unknown people are hunting them down. Betty Gilpin plays one of the prey, and Hilary Swank plays one of the rich people who decided Gilpin’s character would be a routine mark — which, based on the original trailer, is a decision we know they’re going to regret! “The most talked about movie of the year is one nobody’s seen yet,†read a pair of title cards early in the new clip, and a new poster features just a pig on the bottom of a one-sheet with a bunch of quotes from pundits decrying the movie as dangerous trash. It also has the original release date crossed out next to the new one, with an edict that tells viewers to “Decide for yourself.†You can. And Universal hopes you really will on March 13.