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Posted in: Blumhouse, Movies, Universal | Tagged: blumhouse productions, Craig Zobel, jason blum, the forever purge, the hunt, Universal Pictures
The Forever Purge Producer Jason Blum on The Hunt's Prerelease Failure
It's always a dangerous slippery slope when any work is censored due to the prerelease outrage, as The Forever Purge producer Jason Blum is all too familiar with. Blum, who runs Blumhouse Productions, dealt with that first hand when Universal pulled the release of Craig Zobel's The Hunt from its release schedule for its overt political overtones largely offending conservatives with the plot of "liberal elites" hunting conservatives. Blum spoke with ComicBook.com over how audiences were deprived of the scathing commentary of both sides and if he's concerned The Forever Purge's similar narrative would affect its release.
"The pre-release controversy of The Hunt ruined the whole movie," Blum said. "I mean, it ruined the release of the movie. The Hunt was going to be a big hit movie, and the controversy before the movie destroyed the release of the movie. When I get asked what's my biggest regret running the company, it's that no one got to see The Hunt because of that controversy. That controversy is horrible. It was bad. It was controversy about a movie no one had seen. People were making up stuff about a movie they had not seen, and I really hope it never happens again."
The sad irony is that The Hunt did see a release, but 10 days before lockdown from the pandemic when Universal decided to delay the feature as the controversy died down. "I'm worried about it happening before every movie," Blum conceded. "If we have controversy before a movie, it can wreck the release…But what can you do? I don't worry too much. I can't control it." Another thing Blum didn't have any control over, the January 6th riot at the Capitol Building that wasn't fueled by any film release whatsoever. The Forever Purge comes to theaters on July 2nd.
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