ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY AND AWARD NEWS  AUGUST 20, 2019 How The Hunt Might Change Hollywood Two Saturdays ago, Universal abruptly canceled the planned September 27 release of Blumhouse film The Hunt—a satirical thriller apparently about rich elites hunting and killing “deplorables.” The decision arrived shortly after the deadly El Paso and Dayton mass shootings—and just one day after President Donald Trump seemed to slam the movie on Twitter, marking the first time in recent memory that Trump’s remarks have been directly linked to the cancellation of a film. Which prompts a question: Will The Hunt’s fate set a new precedent in Hollywood when it comes to targeting Trump and the MAGA crowd? Yohana Desta spoke with a group of insiders who believe it very well could. “I can’t imagine [the movie’s shelving] not having a chilling effect on a certain type of material,” said Javier Grillo-Marxuach,writer and producer of shows like The 100 and Lost(created by Damon Lindelof, one of the cowriters of The Hunt). “The president doesn’t have to set policy in order to set the tone.” Elsewhere in HWD, Kenzie Bryant looks into the Jake Gyllenhaal–starring Broadway play that’s become an unlikely magnet for teen attention; Sonia Saraiya chats with the minds behind Pen15 about the show’s Emmy-nominated episode; K. Austin Collins is spellbound by the second season of Mindhunter; and for our second 2019 Emmy Awards issue, contributor Joe Reid looks back at one of TV’s major inflection points: the moment reality television stopped being a novelty and started getting, well, real.

The Hunted Now that the controversial horror film apparently about liberal elites killing “deplorables” has been shelved, Hollywood may be running scared. READ MORE » Step Right Up Jake Gyllenhaal’s Broadway bottleneck: “All these kids are going right up to the stage and trying to get his attention. They’re pressed right up at the front. It’s like a Justin Bieber show.” READ MORE » A Very Special Episode Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, and Stacy Osei-Kuffour discuss the Pen15 episode “Anna Ishii-Peters,” brutal honesty, and writing on a tight schedule—with an even tighter budget. READ MORE » New Blood Season two of David Fincher’s popular, serial-killer-focused Netflix series, Mindhunter, finds fresh conflict in the Atlanta child murders. READ MORE » Not Here to Make Friends When Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? transformed prime time in 1999, reality television was decried as a culture-destroying fad. Instead, it changed TV forever.