This Thrilling 2026 Apple TV Miniseries Nearly Wasn't Released Over A Wild Accusation
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It's always struck me as odd (and more than a little infuriating) that some screenwriters believe they can plagiarize an existing script and get away with it. I love Sergio Leone dearly, but he remade Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo" without bothering to acquire the rights (he later blamed his producer). Granted, Kurosawa had borrowed quite a bit from Dashiell Hammett's novel "Red Harvest" (the director said he was actually inspired by Stuart Heisler's film adaptation of Hammett's "The Glass Key"), but he departed enough from the book that he could claim it as an original. Leone could do no such thing, and eventually settled a lawsuit filed by Toho, which made "Yojimbo," thus clearing the way for a United States theatrical release.
For the most part, high-profile plagiarism charges filed against hit movies and shows end up being cash grabs from writers who, at best, had a semi-similar idea. So it was surprising when Apple TV and Gaumont opted to delay the release of Cédric Anger's miniseries "The Hunt" a month prior to its December 2025 premiere due to a French reporter noticing that Anger's work was uncomfortably similar to Douglas Fairbairn's 1973 novel "Shoot." That book formed the basis for a film directed by Harvey Hart that starred Ernest Borgnine, Cliff Robertson, and Henry Silva. It received mostly negative reviews, and Fairbairn has been dead for nearly 30 years, but someone remembered this currently out-of-print curiosity (seriously, it's not even available on physical media, though you can buy a used copy of the book for $131).
Gaumont ultimately determined that Anger had lifted the idea, and cut a deal with the rights holders so that the miniseries could stream. Still, what was Anger thinking?
The Hunt's rights issues were settled, but it should have never come to this in the first place
Anger's "The Hunt" stars Benoît Magimel as a hunter who heads out into the wilderness with a group of friends for a weekend of shooting and macho male bonding. Things go sideways when they realize they're being hunted by another group of heavily armed gun nuts, which leads to a firefight where one member of the outlaw group is killed. When Magimel and friends return home, they begin to suspect that the rival group is hunting them anew out of a thirst for revenge.
In Hart's film, the group resolves to keep the murder of the other hunter a secret. Rather than go home, they decide to track the other hunters down and finish them off. So there are differences, but Gaumont didn't believe Anger's work was different enough to move forward and risk a lawsuit. As the company said in a press release:
"As soon as this information came to its attention, Gaumont, the series' producer, immediately took the necessary steps to identify the rights holders, and obtain the required authorizations. Respect for works and authors' rights is a fundamental principle for Gaumont, which can only be exercised with the trust and transparency of creative artists."
"The Hunt" finally debuted on March 4, 2026 to generally good, if unenthusiastic, reviews. At six hours, it dragged out a story that could've easily been told in a tight 100 minutes. I dig the premise of "Shoot" as a kind of survivalist adventure in the "Deliverance" mold, so maybe a third telling of the tale could realize its potential. I just hope they bother to get the rights this time.