Good news for those remake haters out there as it appears that we won’t be seeing a US adaption of brutal Japanese thriller ‘Battle Royale’ after all. And it all seems thanks to the impending release of Gary Ross’ ‘The Hunger Games’, based on the novel by Suzanne Collins. Producer Roy Lee (‘7500’, ‘The Grudge’) has admitted that ‘The Hunger Games’ has “took a lot of wind out of the sails of a US version of ‘Battle Royale'” mostly due to it’s similar storylines. The Kinji Fukasaku helmed original arrived back in 2000 and was based on the novel by Koushun Takami. If you’ve never seen the original then what the hell is wrong with you!? But you can read the original plot synopsis below.
“Forty-two students, three days, one deserted Island: welcome to Battle Royale. A group of ninth-grade students from a Japanese high school have been forced by legislation to compete in a Battle Royale. The students are each given a bag with a randomly selected weapon and a few rations of food and water and sent off to kill each other in a no-holds-barred (with a few minor rules) game to the death, which means that the students have three days to kill each other until one survives–or they all die. The movie focus on a few of the students and how they cope. Some decide to play the game like the psychotic Kiriyama or the sexual Mistuko, while others like the heroes of the movie–Shuya, Noriko, and Kawada–are trying to find a way to get off the Island without violence. However, as the numbers dwell down lower and lower on an hourly basis, is there any way for Shuya and classmates to survive?”
‘The Hunger Games’, starring Jennifer Lawrence, arrives in theatres on 23 March 2012.
‘Battle Royale’ – Who Will Survive?
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