Ashleigh Hill-Buxton
Plans for a U.S.-made version of Japanese horror film “Battle Royale” have been shelved thanks to “The Hunger Games”, according to Shock Til You Drop.
Gary Ross’ eagerly anticipated film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ wildly popular young-adult novel, “The Hunger Games” centrres itself around the dystopic nation of Panem and its annual televised teenage deathmatch that serves as punishment for a previous rebellion and entertainment for the wealthy residents of the nation’s capital city.
Similarly, Kinji Fukasaku’s “Battle Royale” features a class of ninth-grade children that think they are being taken on a field trip with school, but are gassed along the way and find themselves forced into the Battle Royale – a government sanctioned activity that requires them to kill each other off over a three day period, with only one student allowed to survive.
The plotlines are alarmingly and disturbingly similar, and although “Battle Royale” was made years before Collins had even dreamt Panem and Katniss Everdeen, the author is adamant that her story came about from channel-surfing late one night to the point where war footage and a reality TV show became unsettlingly blurred.
Film producer Roy Lee had at one time been attached to the possibility of a “Battle Royale” remake, but has since become convinced that such a venture would most likely not be profitable.
“Hunger Games took a lot of wind out of the sails of [a U.S. version of Battle Royale] because of its similar storyline and so I’m not exactly sure any studio–even before ‘Hunger Games’–would have taken the creative risks you would have needed to take to make the movie right now so would be even harder,” he said.
