9 Movies That Studios Were Scared Of Releasing

3. The Hunt

In a similar manner to The Interview, the studio behind The Hunt was scared of releasing it because of how closely it related to real-life events.

The film is a cross between The Hunger Games, The Purge and You're Next, revolving around a group of rich individuals who kidnap random members of the public, release them into the wild, and hunt them for sport. It was actually due to be in cinemas right now, but Universal - fearful of the response it would receive, and concerned that it might come across as insensitive - cancelled its release.

This decision was made in the wake of the Dayton and El Paso mass shootings in early August, and considering that The Hunt has a heavy focus on gun violence, the studio decided that it was better off not facing any potential backlash.

Studio executives and filmmakers even received death threats over the content of the film, yet another reason they chose to pull the plug on its theatrical run. It's unclear whether or not The Hunt will ever see the light of day, although an international release is not completely off the table.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!