It seems like the first project out of Jordan Peele’s overall deal with Sonar Entertainment will be a show about Nazi hunters called The Hunt, on which Peele will serve as executive producer. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 1970’s period drama will be written an co-produced by David Wells.
Inspired by true events, The Hunt follows a diverse band of Nazi hunters in 1970s America as they set out on a quest for revenge and justice — tracking and killing hundreds of Nazis who, with the unconscionable help of the U.S. government, escaped justice and embedded themselves in American society.
Okay, so, Nazi hunters were real people, and they were essentially P.I.s who identified SS members and concentration camp guards that had fled Europe after the war. Perhaps the most famous of these Nazi hunters was Simon Wiesenthal, who assisted the Mossad in locating Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. While Eichmann was extradited to Israel extrajudicially, he was given a fair trial before he was executed for his involvement in the Holocaust.
The Hunt sounds more like fiction than fact. Nazi hunters used detective work to gather information and build legal cases against Nazis, and the information they gathered was used to bring Nazis to justice through the judicial process. They didn’t run around killing Nazis in the streets, as viscerally fulfilling as that may be.
Sonar Entertainment, where Peele has a first-look deal, is attached to produce the potential series, along with Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. Sources say the package started going around town following the Charlottesville, Va., neo-Nazi protest and counter protest.
That makes a lot more sense. While the president, the right wing, and most high-profile supporters of Hillary Clinton want to sit around talking about how not all Nazis are bad so you shouldn’t punch them, some of us might enjoy watching some fictional violence aimed at Nazis. Or some real violence against Nazis. While YouTube might remove videos of a dude wearing a Nazi armband getting KOed for “bullying,” maybe Peele can give the guy who knocked this idiot out a role on The Hunt. I’d watch that. I’ve watched the video of the Nazi getting knocked out about a hundred times and it hasn’t become any less satisfying over time, after all.
Ahh, this is what contentment feels like.