Jason Blum didn’t want shelved film The Hunt blamed for a ‘terrible act’

The acclaimed horror producer has revealed why he supported the decision to shelve the unapologetically violent satirical thriller

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Producer Jason Blum and his family were inundated with death threats
as the release date for his controversial new movie The Hunt approached, but that wasn’t why he has thrown his support behind the decision to shelve it.

In Australia for just 24 hours this week to visit the Sydney set of the Leigh Whannell-directed horror The Invisible Man, the Blumhouse Productions founder talks exclusively to Insider about the controversial decision by Universal Pictures to pull one of his latest films.

The satirical thriller is about a group of “deplorables” — the term for conservative Donald Trump supporters popularised by Hillary Clinton in the lead-up to the 2016 election — who are kidnapped and released to be hunted by a group of wealthy liberal elites.

It is unapologetically violent and, in the wake of two more mass shootings in the US and a politically charged environment that has people on edge, Universal this week made the rare decision to cancel The Hunt’s September 27 release indefinitely .

American director and producer Jason Blum in Sydney this week. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

New releases, especially those with a violent storyline, are sometimes shifted by studios as a sign of respect to victims after a major incident. But some, including influential US critic Tim Grierson writing for Rolling Stone, have accused Universal of bowing to pressure from US President Donald Trump.

Without having seen the movie, Trump took to Twitter to blast it. “The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos. They create their own violence, and then try to blame others,” his tweet read in part.

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But Blum explains the reason for pulling The Hunt is more complicated than a simple response to the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

“We had no choice,” he says before rephrasing his answer. “That’s not fair to say, of course we had a choice, but I very much supported and agreed with them.

A scene from this year’s horror hit Us produced by Blumhouse Productions. .

“The reason why The Hunt was different than any other violent movie after a violent incident, particularly in the US, is that what happened is that two different issues got conflated: violence and politics. That hasn’t happened before.”

The impending release of the movie, which stars two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank and Glow’s Betty Gilpin, brought with it an onslaught of abuse, and worse, from those angry about the controversial plot.

“I got 3000 emails, my kids got their lives threatened, my life got threatened multiple, multiple times,” he reveals. “You may say I’m crazy, but that doesn’t stop me, that doesn’t scare me. What made me completely uncomfortable with releasing the film now is the notion that some terrible act would happen and the film would be blamed and I just couldn’t live with that. I didn’t want that, Universal didn’t want that and so we took it off the schedule,” he adds.

What happens with the film now is anyone’s guess.

Daniel Kaluuya in a scene from Get Out which won 2017 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

“We don’t know,” Blum says. “It’s just off the schedule for now and it’s totally TBD when, if and how it’s going to come out, but it certainly ain’t coming out any time soon.”

And while he agrees with Universal’s decision to shelve the film, he admits it wasn’t an easy one to make.

“Nothing is more disappointing,” he says. “It is so hard to make a movie (but) then to make a good movie and have the release all set up and then pull the movie so close to release, it’s super disappointing.”

Blum is widely considered the master of modern horror, with his ability to identify a great story and assemble the team to bring it to life. He is well-known for producing box-office magic with the smallest of budgets.

Get Out, which won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2017 and was nominated for three others, had a budget of $4.5 million; it took more than $250 million at the box office. On a modest budget of $20 million, this year’s recent critically acclaimed horror, Us, delivered a similar financial result.

But it’s not just about the money for Blum, who clearly loves telling stories. It’s about lowering risk and empowering the filmmakers he hires.

“The deal is you only get paid if the movie makes money but you get final cut so you live or die by your own sword,” he says. “That general principle is never going to change.”