Movie’s Sept. 27 release canceled

President said intent of violent new film was to “cause chaos”

Universal Pictures has canceled the planned September release of its controversial social satire “The Hunt,” in the wake of recent mass shootings and amid criticism from President Donald Trump.

The move came several days after the studio suspended the ad campaign for the film, a gory, Rrated thriller that tells a tale of liberal “elites” hunting people in red states for sport.

In a statement Saturday, Universal said it had decided to take the further step of canceling the film’s Sept. 27 release, saying: “We understand that now is not the right time to release this film.”

Left open was the possibility that the movie could be released at a later date.

Trump criticized the planned movie Friday on Twitter, without mentioning its name, saying it was intended “to inflame and cause chaos.”

The president also had harsh words for Hollywood in the tweet, saying “Liberal Hollywood is Racist at the highest level,” and he disputed the description of them as being “elite.”

“In fact, it is often the people that they so strongly oppose that are actually the Elite,” Trump tweeted.

The tweets echo words spoken to members of the news media outside the White House earlier Friday, when the president also described Hollywood as racist and “the kind of movies they’re putting out” as a “tremendous disservice to our country.”

“The Hunt” is directed by Craig Zobel (“Z for Zachariah”) and written by Damon Lindelof (TV’S “Lost,” “The Leftovers”) and Nick Cuse (a writer on the latter series). Produced by Blumhouse Pictures, “The Hunt” follows a group of self-described “normal folk,” portrayed as gun-toting white people from red states, who find themselves in a sort of Hunger Games run by liberal “elites.”

“Your idea is incredible,” a rich man says in the movie trailer. “It’s just business, hunting humans for sport?”

“They’re not human beings,” responds a sleekly dressed woman played by Hilary Swank. She also states that the country belongs to rich people like herself because “we pay for everything.”

The violent trailer for “The Hunt” attracted backlash from conservative media, which have widely interpreted the movie as a depiction of liberal people hunting Trump supporters. But in a Thursday episode of the Fox News program “The Five,” cohost Greg Gutfeld argued that the backlash has been overblown because the fictional “deplorables” might win out in the end.

“Can I defend this?” he said. “This is an old idea, ‘The Most Dangerous Game.’ There’s a lot of movies about hunting humans, and we have no idea who becomes victorious in this. This is a satire.”

Universal Pictures suspended marketing for “The Hunt” last week in the wake of recent mass shootings.