The Hunt finally premieres this week after months of controversy stemming from the very political divide the film seeks to investigate. As a story about the rich elite hunting down primarily poor conservatives, there is much to question on either side. But whatever the theories about its contents were, viewers can expect the cerebral horror that has become Blumhouse Productions' brand as well as allegorical writing from the creators of Watchmen and The Leftovers.
Co-writers Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof actually teamed up with a director they've known since Leftovers, Craig Zobel. Having directed episodes of Westworld and American Gods as well as the film Z For Zachariah, Zobel is very familiar with the political discussions and apocalyptic scenarios required for The Hunt.
Cuse and Zobel chatted with Screen Rant prior to the film's release, discussing their teamwork on various projects as well as possibilities for a sequel.
I just watched The Hunt last night, and I laughed and squealed at various instances. Did you have to make any changes in the editing room or anything else after the delay? Or was it just a waiting game for misconceptions to go away?
Craig Zobel: No, we didn't. Nobody asked us to change anything, and we didn't make any changes.
The movie really does portray the rich elite as equally ridiculous or more so than the ones that they are ridiculing. How important was it to you to balance the scales?
Craig Zobel: I would say that my perspective on it was simply the level of what's gonna make us laugh right now, and laughing at ourselves was a big part of that. So, maybe some beliefs that we would have, we were trying to make sure to skewer and make sure that everybody was kind of roasted equally.
Nick Cuse: Yeah, it was really just about nothing is what it seems, I think, for people on both sides of the hunt. So, I think just defying expectations and putting people in situations where they seem very well-educated and very conscious and aware, but then they're trying to murder people in the forest. There's something fun about that contradiction.
Hopefully everyone sees the fun in the film and goes to see it. Do you have any ideas for potential sequels, or other conspiracy theories you might tackle?
Nick Cuse: Maybe. Yeah, I mean, if people like it, it's always a conversation worth having. But I think the idea that's interesting outside of just this movie is, "What is a conspiracy that became real?" Because there's more out there. So, Flat Earth is the next one.
Craig Zobel: Yeah, we're making a flat Earth. We're gonna prove it.
Nick Cuse: Industrial Light & Magic will be doing it. They have a great Flat Earth prototype.
You've both worked together since Leftovers, along with Damon. How would you say that your teamwork has evolved since then?
Nick Cuse: Well, I mean, I'd just say that it's been great. There was a great shorthand from the beginning. And when we had the first conversation with this movie, we said, "What if we could do a Blumhouse movie that was like The Most Dangerous Game and Craig could direct it? That would be so fun." The fact that it's Jason Blum and Craig, that will never happen again. We were very lucky.
Finally, this is not a conspiracy theory. But when I read about Station Eleven, with the Coronavirus outbreak that's happening now, I was like, "Are you psychic? What happened?"
Nick Cuse: Actually, now it's going to be an Alex Gibney documentary. He's taking over for Hiro Murai; he's just interviewing people, and it's just gonna be like the last record of humanity before it was wiped off the earth for aliens to find and teach in their history classes.
But you actually were writing it beforehand, right?
Nick Cuse: Yes, we've been working on it. I mean, the book by Emily St. John is great, and that was written five or six years ago. And then yes, we've written most of the entire season. The show takes place 20 years after the apocalypse. It's a hypothetical, I guess, now. I mean, I hope not.
