Battle Royale Remake News
Last month, Scott told you about New Line's planned remake of the cult-classic Japanese film Battle Royale. It turns out that contrary to what was reported by our source, Variety, the studio has not completed acquiring the rights just yet. But otherwise the Americanized version is on its way toward production. So far, fans of the original are outraged at the idea and many people are baffled at how New Line is going to handle the violent story of a class of 9th graders who have to kill each other. Surely, they think New Line is going to screw it up by toning it down.The New York Times talked with Roy Lee, who has produced remakes of the Asian films The Grudge, Dark Water, The Lake House and The Ring, and who is now producing Battle Royale, about the issues of the film's content and what we might expect from his version. It will take place in America (like all his remakes save for The Grudge) and will still be about high school students. Lee said that to tone down the story, he could make it so the students are in jail (or juvie?) at the beginning, but he sees that as pointless. He also assures that the film will be R-rated -- with a very hard R -- because the original would have received an NC-17 if released in the U.S. Finally he admits to being a huge fan of the original and has no intentions of ruining it with a bad film.
We can all breath easier now, right?. I mean, he must just not have been a huge fan of his other remakes, right? That's why they were bad films (okay, The Ring was okay). Personally, I'm still not assured that Lee will be able to appropriately handle the material over here.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-08-2008 @ 1:44AM
griffin laking said...
I was already disappointed in the original after reading the novel and manga. At first I didn't like it because it was very rushed and skipped all the interesting parts from the original source. Upon a second watching I realized that for this movie to be perfect would have to be around 6 hours long so, I started to notice the genius behind the film and how technically good it was. Plus, it had the best soundtrack ever. I hope that the remake will have a few more ideas from the book and keep the soundtrack. I really don't want them to kill BR!
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3-26-2008 @ 9:25AM
Louis said...
This movie is propbably the worst candidate for a movie remake i have ever seen. The original movie was intense and gripping even with its differences to the plotline of the actual book. Despite this it was still probably my favourite movie of all time.
WTF is going on with the entrees being in prison or juvie whatever it is? The original book hung so well because they were a mixed selection of kids from the class representative to the gang leader. But all these kids would have the same basic backdrop. Plus they will not be able to show how far it takes a normal kid to go in order to survive. BUT THESE ARE NOT NORMAL KIDS< WHICH RUINS THIS COMPLETELY!!
Plus in the book we can see how Shuya was affected by rock 'n' roll music which was banned by the state. This gave him a rebellious edge which could be seen from other characters opinions of him. But this can't work because America is suppose to be a land of free expression which won't leave the main character a chance to gain this rebellious yet somehow innocent persona.
How old will the kids in this movie be as well. In many American movies they bring in older actors to fill out the actors for high school kids. But if they do this then they will lose all the shicking attitude we obtained from their surprisingly young age.
When i became 18 i planned on getting the BR symbol tattoed on my arm to show my support for the masterpiece that is Battle Royale. But now this may not happen because i won't want people associating it with the remake.
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6-01-2008 @ 3:50AM
joanne mullen said...
Does anyone have a computer copy of the original novel? I'd love to read it. It seems very hard to get hold of!
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6-07-2008 @ 10:27AM
fuck said...
what the fuck why in america thats bull shit noway is it gnna be violent enough the black guy will die first n yeah it will be full of those kids from the oc n one tree hill fukin jackass director keep it japanesa
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9-22-2008 @ 6:55AM
israel sinlao said...
wahhhhhhh... i want to know who will be the Nanahara Shuya in the remake.... this is absolutely exciting to watch... hope bloodier and more brutal action packed film will be this remake.
i love you Noriko.
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10-15-2008 @ 7:23AM
Larien said...
As soon as I read "set in America" you lost me. One of the beauties of the original is that it is set in Japan. Could you see American teens staring in this movie? It would be tragic! And besides, American kids can't pull off the cute Japanese schoolgirl look. :P
Still, I'll probably go watch it for laughs. I was pretty much dying of laughter in The Ring 2. Crappy remakes are a good source of amusment! :)
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7-09-2006 @ 11:36AM
T. said...
I'm just worried about the One Tree Hill-like emo teen actors they're likely to use for this.
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7-09-2006 @ 3:38PM
Finished.Law.School said...
I guarantee that if you have seen the original you will be disappointed at how they fuck this remake up. Japanese culture is why this film was made there and worked. American culture and things like Columbine will prevent this from making its way to the theater intact much less being as entertaining as the original.
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7-09-2006 @ 7:17PM
kel said...
I'm really curious to see what they do to this film in America. I don't believe that this is the masterpiece that many claim it is. After the inital shock of the first kids getting killed (which I agree was amazing), the rest of it seemed rather pointless. So go ahead, feel free to fuck it up.
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7-09-2006 @ 7:31PM
culturalelite said...
I don't want to be a raging fanboy. but this remake will suck balls. FACT. I'm sorry, I don't mind remakes, I enjoyed dawn of the dead and Hills have eyes, but so far everything this guy has produced has been non-sensical garbage. Half the time it's like he hasn't even watched the film, he just heard the title.
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7-09-2006 @ 7:45PM
kris said...
this remake is absolutely unnecessary. if they wanted to make money, they should just try and acquire the rights to the original and put that into movie theaters. the fact that a "huge fan" of this movie sees fit to remake it means that there's someone with a lot of money and no respect for the film behind it...which really sickens me.
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7-09-2006 @ 8:38PM
David said...
Why bother spending millions of money on a remake that will probably barely break even when they could just bring the original and potentially make some money. Even if it was rated NC-17 and made a total of $40,000,000 that would still be more profitable than Poseiden (This statement is merely a guess, I just can't imagine that flick made back it's cost).
What makes me really sick is that I will probably go watch this inevitable piece of crap. If Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon can make money here why not give other Japanes imports a try. I am tired of this "American Made Only" attitude in Hollywood.
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9-22-2008 @ 6:56AM
cubao said...
your such a loser..
what ever
7-10-2006 @ 11:12AM
Marilyn said...
Why bother making a remake? As far as I know, it's going to suck like no tomorrow. I've seen the original movie and I loved it. If they really want to remake it, they should leave it as it is, otherwise, they can save that money for another crapass flick.
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7-10-2006 @ 2:50PM
Bill said...
I'm pumped for this for ONE reason... When this comes out they'll HAVE to finally release the original on DVD in the states. It'll be too good of an opportunity to make a bunch of money that they won't be able to resist.
CTHD is Chinese. Those folks don't appreciate being mixed up with each other. What with the history of brutal conflict and all.
Oh, and the "American Made Only" attitude isn't Hollywood... it's about 80% of the American public. Hollywood just follows the money.
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7-14-2006 @ 3:24PM
Mike said...
>
Err... Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon wasn't a Japanese movie...
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7-19-2006 @ 10:01AM
Dismental said...
I am outragged at this. If they remake this movie with the students coming out of jail or juvie, I will go ballistic. That is what made the movie great, all the variety of the students (Preps to Troublemakers). Hey, if your pumped about this so you can get the original version on DVD, your an idiot. I have seen this movie at Borders, Best Buy, and on tons of sites online. Make sure the DVD you get is Region 0 NTSC if you are in America. I will check it out, and will most likely hate it. I was eventually hopimg to make my own version of if. I taking the best parts from the movie and the novel (which is a classic book, read it even if you don't like to read). This movie will get tons of money the first 2 or 3 days then it will be out of theaters the following week. Just watch, it will happen. Check out my Battle Royale website if you think I don't know what I'm talking about. The URL is www.freewebs.com/battleroyaleisle.
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7-19-2006 @ 5:05PM
ben said...
okay..this pisses me off....an americanized version!?!
what is that about? could one be so dumb as to make a movie without reading the book!!
out of fear for what butchery will come if this movie comes out, i will try to explain why it wont be battle royale in america...
MAIN PLOT OF BOOK!! THE IMPORTANT PART!!
(warning...might ruin book a bit..)
okay...so in japan..the youth is out of controll...the japanese government feas them because they have been influenced by american culture, music and values. to silence the youth, they put them on the island to kill eachother...THE JAPANESE IN THE BOOK HATE!! AMERICA!! does nobody else notice this!?
point 2:
there is an important message to the story...and i know for a fact that it will be ruined...
With the youth in the book acting similarly to how the youth really are acting...the book predicted that it would get out of hand..so it pushed a resolution to the problem by creatign the milenium educational reform act...the BR ACT... this story was about how out of controll the kids today are...i am telling you this as a 16 year old! i even see it and i am one! this book could be seen as a warning that things are going to hell in a picnic basket now, and people need to open their eyes past the blood to see this!
DONT RUIN TEH CLASSICS!
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8-11-2006 @ 10:58PM
Cerri said...
"I'm really curious to see what they do to this film in America. I don't believe that this is the masterpiece that many claim it is. After the inital shock of the first kids getting killed (which I agree was amazing), the rest of it seemed rather pointless. So go ahead, feel free to fuck it up."
Errr...only if you aren't aware of the full context of the story. The eleventh post has it all right. The point of the book was to illustrate an out-of-control youth being "fixed" by an even more extreme ruling. The Program (as called in the novel and manga) was the ultimate plot device to tell kids that there's a time to not trust and fight against adults, especially the government, and to be aware of what goes on in their society. That's not going to fly well with the American majority. The people who will enjoy this are more likely to be mindless tools who just want crazy violence but would never think to read the full story in it's novel form, rather than the original fans of BR.
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8-14-2006 @ 12:22AM
Ryan said...
It seems like almost no one here has read the actual book, including the makers of the original film! The movie was nothing compared to the masterpiece that the book was. In the movie, characters had different weapons then they had in the book, they died different ways, and everything happened very differently. It seems that Roy Lee hasn't even read the book, so the American version will probably screw it up horribly. But the Japanese version didn't do much better. Maybe, some day if we're lucky, they'll make a version that follows the story that Koushun Takami intended. And it'll have some awesome Bruce Springsteen music too.
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