Apple TV pulls The Hunt over plagiarism accusation

Apple TV removed The Hunt from its streaming slate last week after concerns were raised about plagiarism. The move, previously reported by Apple Insider, comes after French media journalist Clément Garin claimed that the story closely follows Shoot, a 1974 novel written by Douglas Fairbairn.

The Hunt was originally supposed to premiere on Apple TV on December 3rd. However, Gaumont, the production company behind The Hunt, confirmed its removal from Apple’s streaming schedule. “The broadcast of our series ‘The Hunt’ has been temporarily postponed,” Gaumont tells Variety. “We are currently conducting a thorough review to address any questions related to our production. We take intellectual property matters very seriously.”

The French thriller follows Franck and a group of friends who encounter a hostile group of hunters while on a hunting trip. Here’s the logline, according to Variety: 

Franck (Magimel) 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 (Laurent), 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.

Meanwhile, Fairbairn’s Shoot, which was adapted into a film in 1976, surrounds an “uber-macho hunter” named Rex. During a hunting trip to Canada, Rex and his friends are attacked by a group of rival hunters. When one of them gets shot, another one of Rex’s friends fires back, killing one of the attackers, according to the book’s description:

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…. 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.

Apple TV also postponed the debut of The Savant in September, which follows an investigator (Jessica Chastain) who tries to infiltrate online hate groups to stop domestic terrorism attacks. The Verge reached out to Apple and Gaumont with requests for comment, but didn’t immediately hear back.

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