You'd think at some point I'd learn to stop celebrating quite so openly. When producer Roy Lee revealed that the chances of seeing an American remake of violent Japanese classic, Battle Royale, had been crushed by The Hunger Games, I did a little victory lap. Battle Royale is easily in my top five favorite films, and the idea of seeing a bunch of milquetoast CW dudes and dudettes offing one another in a bad PG-13 knockoff gave me nightmares. Well, now there's another reason to wake up in a cold sweat.
The LA Times reports that discussions are now underway between the CW network and those representing a Hollywood version of Battle Royale, with those talks leading to a possible TV series. No deal is in place, and according to Japanese law, approval must be granted by the original manga author, Koushun Takami. We here at Punch Drunk Critics International are attempting to buy him off as we speak. Money's under the table, sir.
So what's the big deal about Battle Royale, anyway? Released in 2000, the film follows over 40 of the worst students at a Japanese high school who are sent to a remote island where they are forced to kill each other for three days using an assortment of weapons. Alliances form, and the social hierarchy of high school plays out in dangerous ways. When The Hunger Games came out, many noted the similarities between the two films, although to me there really is no comparison. Battle Royale is far more violent, and the themes are unique to the Japanese culture of the time period. The film earned a ton of controversy, and never received a theatrical run here in the United States until just a few months ago. It was outright banned in some other countries and continues to be so. Battle Royale and its less successful sequel were both recently released on Blu-Ray. Maybe this never happens, but clearly someone is pushing hard to make Battle Royale a reality. The CW already has one post-apocayptic series on the way in The Selection, which features teens fighting for survival against one another. Isn't that enough?
