The director of the hunt says that the canceled film was not intended to divide

After three consecutive mass shootings and Donald Trump's critics, Universal finally decided to tidy up the The hunt. The film was obviously intended to provoke the audience by inspiring our current political climate, but in a new interview, Zobel explained that he had never wanted the film to be anything other than A sharp comment.

The film was centered on a group of powerful elites who hunt without suspicion, abductees who would be described as "deplorable" in the screenplay – written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof. "Our ambition was to hit both sides of the aisle as well," Zobel told Variety. "We seek to entertain and unify, not to rage and divide. It's up to viewers to decide what they will buy. But the play Variety reminds us that the film was not yet at the stage where it was presented to critics.

Universal has not screened the film for critics, the political content of the final cup is still largely conjectural. A first draft of the script obtained by Variety makes it clear that the initial intention was to portray the conservatives of the working class as heroes. They are kidnapped and hunted down by "liberal elites", one of whom claims that "climate change is real" before expelling his victim. One of the good guys is talking about "deep state" and another fantasy about saying "Hannity" to denounce the plot.

For his part, Zobel said that if the decision to put the film on hold was difficult, he agreed with the studio's choice given the circumstances:

I was devastated when going to sleep in El Paso and getting up in Dayton.

These types of moments occur far too often. As a result of these horrific events, we immediately reflected on what that meant for the timing of our film. Once inaccurate assumptions about the content and intent of the film began to take root, I supported the decision to move the film from its release date.

Zobel also added that he still believed The hunt has something to say about our polarized society:

I wanted to make a fun action thriller that satirizes this moment of our culture – we assume we know someone's beliefs because of what "team" we think we are … and we start shouting at them. This rush to judgment is one of the most important problems of our time.

In the future, we do not know what will happen to the film and whether Universal will ever think that the film should go out at the movies or at home. Which is a shame, considering we could all expect to see more of Betty Gilpin kicking in all kinds of donkeys.

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