The first two episodes of a French thriller series called The Hunt (or Traqués) were scheduled to premiere on Apple TV on Wednesday, December 3rd, with one episode to follow every Wednesday through December 31st… but last week, Apple TV pulled the show from their lineup – and now we know why. Various outlets, including Variety, are reporting that the show was pulled over plagiarism concerns.
What is The Hunt about?
Created and directed by Cédric Anger for producer Gaumont, The Hunt has the following logline: Franck and his longtime friends enjoy spending their weekends hunting together, but one Sunday, they come across another group of hunters who start targeting them without explanation. When one of their party is shot, Franck’s friends strike back, sending an attacker to the ground. Barely managing to escape, the four friends keep the event a secret. Franck tries to go back to his life as usual alongside his wife, Krystel, but in the next few days, he starts to feel like he and his friends are being watched, or worse, tracked by hunters who are now hell-bent on revenge. The series stars Benoît Magimel, Mélanie Laurent, Damien Bonnard, Manuel Guillot, Cédric Appietto, Angelyna Danabe Mignot, Paul Beaurepaire, Yann Goven, Sarah Pachoud, and Patrick de Vallette.
Isabelle Degeorges, Clémentine Vaudaux, Alexis Barqueiro, and Sidonie Dumas serve as executive producers for Gaumont.
Gaumont has confirmed that they’re investigating the plagiarism allegations and provided the following statement: “The broadcast of our series The Hunt has been temporarily postponed. We are currently conducting a thorough review to address any questions related to our production. We take intellectual property matters very seriously.“
Is it a rip-off?
The allegations were first surfaced by French media expert Clement Garin and claim that The Hunt (which has nothing to do with the 2020 film of the same name) is a rip-off of the 1973 novel Shoot by Douglas Fairbairn, which received a film adaptation with the same title in 1976. The film was directed by Harvey Hart from a screenplay written by Richard Berg, and it starred Cliff Robertson, Ernest Borgnine, and Henry Silva.
Here’s the description of Fairbairn’s Shoot from Goodreads: Rex is an uber-macho hunter who together with four equally testosterone-addled buddies embarks on a hunting trip in the Canadian wilderness. But their weekend is cut short by a rival band of hunters they encounter in the forest, one of whom inexplicably take a potshot at Rex’s party and grazes the head of one of his buddies. Another of Rex’s friends returns fire, killing the shooter. From there Rex and company scurry off and head back to civilization. Rex decides not to contact the authorities about the killing, betting the rival hunters will react the same way. To confirm this he looks up the murdered man’s identity and tracks down his widow. She reveals that her deceased hubbie’s buddies claim he was killed by a ‘stray bullet.’ This doesn’t entirely satisfy Rex, however, who becomes convinced that the dead man’s companions are going to come after him and his friends. Rex makes plans to head back to the scene of the crime the following Saturday, where he’s positive the rival hunters will be waiting for them. He recruits a small army and a veritable arsenal of firepower as accompaniment. The fateful day arrives. Rex and his mini-army, guns at the ready, set out into the now snow covered forest. It appears deserted. Appearances, however, can be deceiving, and before the day is done lots of guns–true to Rex’s predictions–will be fired. Fairbairn passed away in 1997.
Anger, who was born between the publication of Fairbairn’s novel and the release of the film adaptation, has 25 years of screenwriting credits to his name and has also directed the films The Killer (2007), The Counsel, Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart, and Paris Pigalle.
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