'The Hunt' director breaks silence on controversial film with liberal elitists hunting 'deplorables': 'We seek to entertain and unify'

Craig Zobel, director of "The Hunt," has broken his silence on the film, which shows liberal elitists hunting people who they referred to as "deplorables."

Universal Pictures pulled ads for the film following back-to-back massacres earlier in August. Shortly after the production company pulled ads, it canceled the scheduled release of the movie.

What are the details?

Zobel spoke with Variety, where he detailed his intentions behind the controversial project and insisted that the satirical film does not take political sides.

"Our ambition was to poke at both sides of the aisle equally," he explained. "We seek to entertain and unify, not enrage and divide. It is up to the viewers to decide what their takeaway will be." He also insisted that "if [he] believed this film could incite violence, [he] wouldn't have made it."

He explained that the divide sometimes caused by cultural and political ideologies is "one of the most relevant problems of our time."

"I wanted to make a fun, action thriller that satirized this moment in our culture — where we jump to assume we know someone's beliefs because of which 'team' we think they're on … and then start shouting at them," he added.

Zobel said that he was distraught to hear about the mass killings that took place in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

"I was devastated by going to sleep to El Paso and waking up to Dayton," Zobel told Variety. "These types of moments happen far too often. In the wake of these horrific events, we immediately considered what it meant for the timing of our film. Once inaccurate assumptions about the content and intent of the movie began to take hold, I supported the decision to move the film off its release date."