The director of “The Hunt” is defending his unseen film, which saw its released canceled after criticism that it showed liberal elites hunting “deplorable” Trump supporters.
Craig Zobel said he movie he directed was intended to “poke at both sides of the aisle equally.”
{mosads}“We seek to entertain and unify, not enrage and divide,” he said in an interview with Variety that was conducted through a series of emails. “It is up to the viewers to decide what their takeaway will be.”
The film was canceled by Universal a week after the nation was shocked by mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
Zobel said he did not believe the move would have led to more violence.
“If I believed this film could incite violence, I wouldn’t have made it,” he wrote in an email to Variety.
He also said he was devastated by the shootings and agreed with the decision to not release the film after he said it had been misinterpreted.
“I was devastated by going to sleep to El Paso and waking up to Dayton,” Zobel said. “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.”
The director insisted the film had been misunderstood and that it was supposed to show what happens when both sides of the political spectrum fail to listen or try to understand one another.
He said he did not think it took sides against conservatives.
“Our ambition was to poke at both sides of the aisle equally,” Zobel told Variety.
“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 told Variety. “This rush to judgment is one of the most relevant problems of our time.”
It’s still not entirely clear what the film depicted, as it was never screened for critics.
Variety wrote that it had obtained an early version of a script that showed its original intention was to show working-class conservatives hunted by liberal elites. It said that one of the elite characters said “climate change is real” before “blowing his victim away.”
Conservatives ripped the unseen movie and took issue with the use of the term “deplorables,” which was used once by 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to describe Trump supporters.
President Trump appeared to criticize the film last week without mentioning it by name in an Aug. 9 tweet.
“Liberal Hollywood is Racist at the highest level, and with great Anger and Hate!” he tweeted to his more than 62 million followers. “They like to call themselves ‘Elite,’ but they are not Elite. In fact, it is often the people that they so strongly oppose that are actually the Elite.”
The president added: “The movie coming out is made in order … to inflame and cause chaos. They create their own violence, and then try to blame others. They are the true Racists, and are very bad for our Country!”
A new release date has not be announced, nor is it known if “The Hunt” will be released at all.
The Hill has reached out to Universal for comment.