‘The Hunt’ is Back on the Prowl: Apple’s Plagiarized Thriller Returns
Frédéric Maranber, Cédric Appietto, Benoît Magimel, Damien Bonnard and Manuel Guillot in 'The Hunt (Traqués)' [Apple]
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In November, news broke that Apple had been forced to pull a new thriller from its schedule only weeks before it was scheduled to debut amid claims of plagiarism. However, it seems the lawyers have worked out the necessary details, and The Hunt is back on.
While Apple never made a formal announcement about the controversy, a French media reporter, Clément Garin, noted enough similarities between The Hunt and a 1973 Douglas Fairbairn novel, Shoot to raise concerns, after which Apple quietly “disappeared” all references to it from its press pages.
Both The Hunt and Shoot revolve around a group of friends out hunting in the wilderness who find themselves attacked by another group of hunters. However, after escaping with minor injuries, the friends continue to feel that they’re being stalked.
Franck (Benoît 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 (Mélanie 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.
Apple TV Press
While adaptations of stories are common — Shoot itself was adapted into a 1976 film of the same name starring Cliff Robertson and Ernest Borgnine — the problem is that Cédric Anger, the director, creator, and screenwriter for The Hunt, reportedly left this detail out when he pitched the series to Apple, presumably at least implying the idea was his own creation.
It’s unclear whether Garin was the first to shine a light on this or if it came to Apple’s attention in some other way, but news broke only two weeks before its December 3, 2025 Apple TV premiere date. Apple and Gaumont, the show’s production company, immediately paused the release while they consulted their lawyers to figure out the next move.
At the time, sources said both companies were floating the idea of suing Anger for his deception to try to recover production costs. However, other industry experts said that they might also be looking for a way to cut a deal for legitimate rights to the series, as the show was already “in the can” and ready to air.
According to Deadline, the production company has followed that second path, and The Hunt is scheduled to debut on Apple TV on March 4. In a statement, Gaumont provided an explanation of what transpired:
Originally scheduled for December 2025, The Hunt‘s release was postponed after it was identified in November 2025 that the project, presented as an original work, was based on an existing work, Douglas Fairbairn’s Shoot.
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.
As Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva points out, that last paragraph feels like an oblique swipe at Anger. It’s unclear what his role will be in the show going forward; while he was initially billed as Creator and Director before Apple scrubbed the show from its press pages. While it’s now returned, that first credit has been conspicuously stripped from below his name, although he still retains credit for directing five of the six episodes of the series; Guillaume Renusson directed episode three.
