Battle Royale remake
 

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=14899

Well. I never expected to see this headline.

Um.

Most controversial movie of the next few years, right here. Unless...

Just watch, they'll change it to either a college class or just random adults placed on an island to avoid having kids killing kids (which was the whole damn draw of the original).

I mean, there's already a cool movie about adults chosen to kill each other off to survive (it was called Series 7).

Hey maybe they can use the slut girl more here, nude scenes and stuff. =D.
This could be good or it could be bad, depends on the cast.

Needs moar Kitano!

Nothing good will come out of this. The end will be another americanized movie without substance.

Because shit like this will cause more school shootings.

Though, I wonder with this remake a hopefull official R1 DVD release of the original, like most Asian remakes.

I can't see anything good comming out of this....I guess I'll wait and see.
So, will this be based on part BR 1 or BR 2?

I'm guessing BR 1, but still, they'll find a way to make it suck. My guess is they will throw too much focus on the "apocolypic future" and will probably make the children like the kids in The Road Warrior. Great.

Interesting news. I enjoyed the first Battle Royale, as it felt fresh in a weird sort of way. Hopefully the remake will maintain the kind of raw and brutalness even if they have to make changes here and there to make it suitable for the audience.

I'm worried the subtle aspects behind the characterisation of Robotic Uzi Guy will be totally lost in a remake.

I spent a fortune to get the R0 UK NTSC release of the original because I felt it would never get a R1 release. Now, I'm sure it will.

Dammit.

I don't remember BR being very 'sci fi'... Anyway, if there's going to be a remake, I expect it will be more consumer friendly which will certainly take the edge and shock value off the original.

I thought BR was an amazing show. It was no doubt violent, but it explored an even darker side of that. How just in one moment a fatal mistake can dictate the death of everyone. I'll never forget the scene where the Japanese girl who eats the soup dies and it leads onto a chain of events that gets everyone killed. The mistrust, suspicion and doubt, it's more of an exploration of the human psyche and I think that's what makes this show interesting.

However, I think the no doubt this "americanized" version will be thrashy. I hated all remakes of the Japanese to the English, EVEN the most basic things like voiceovers (I totally HATE all Final Fantasy English voiceovers as well as those for animes *yucks yucks yucks*) so I don't think I will be a huge fan of this new movie. Just look at the Dead or Alive series. They're going to make it into a movie and it just looks horrendously thumbs down.

Still, going to keep my options open. No doubt this show will be filled with gory elements but whether it still keeps the true sanity and meaning behind the story is another thing.

Why the hell are they remaking this right now. The original just came out a few years ago, and even then it wasn't very good. Maybe this time they can do it right: I'm talking about Rambo vs. Ash Williams vs. El Mariachi vs. The Man With No Name vs. Frank Zappa himself (note: Frank Zappa will win). Or if they can't afford that, at least give us a villain who doesn't look like an even more effeminate version of David Bowie.

Double Post:
Yes, the satan-worshipping vampire nazis at the production studio are sitting around their table sipping glasses of blood, diabolically twisting their mustaches and asking themselves "How exactly can we butcher this by Americanizing it?" just to antagonize waps all over the world.

I gave the original BR a dl at the request of a friend of mine, man that show was certainly different and nothing of what I expected. Senseless killing, paranoia, love, and betrayal all wrapped around the most warped concept of a movie.

I don't see how an american remake can do the file justice without just doing the EXACT same thing.

NOOOOO.
I was beaten to the punch.
there goes my plan for a trilogy that actually does the Battle Royale story and characters justice.

Does anyone else think that the whole concept of this movie is rather stupid?

I take it you don't watch terribly much anime. Gotta just take some things in stride~

It's gonna suck o_o The Ring remake sucked. The Grudge remake sucked. Their sequels sucked. This'll do the same as a result. The American film industry is quite unoriginal. Hence all these damn remakes.

Thank god, I thought I was the only one. Basically, this is half a movie. There is action but no badass hero or plot. It's like the counterpart for Escape from New York (which was plenty badass but had almost no action).

OH CHRIST NO. It's gonna have whiny jailbait fourteen-year-old American girls kicking the shit out of each other, and not in a good way.

I'm not going to see this. What utter bullshit.

Bumping

Ha are you kidding? America? If they go ahead and make the characters 14-15 years old they'll totally desexualise the whole thing and probably up the violence.
Expect slut girl to be replaced by white supremecist boy, who'll see the folly in his ways by being saved by black girl.

Regardless, im sick of some of you guys dismissing this remake outright. If you like the original so much why do you expect this one to be so much worse.
I expect a competent remake, with similarly brutal violence, more dramatic dialogue, and less art house scenes. The films themes will be slightly different and made more explicit though a monologue from Binoculars girl. And there will probably be a little less attention to detail and a plot hole thorwn in for good measure.

I guess you should download the original move and watch it then.

I don't get it. They can't release the original movie in America, but can get rights to remake it?

The reason Battle Royale doesn't have a US release is because Toei wants an obscene amount of money for what essentially amounts to a indie flick; I'm curious how much New Line paid for the remake rights.

Well, looking on the bright side, at least it isn't Disney who is making this movie. But they might as well, it'll suck either way.

I read that Toei wants about ~2,000,000$ for distribution rights, which doesn't seem like an unreasonable amount, considering that the budget of the film was ~4,500,000$, and it would almost certainly make a lot more than two million dollars in the States (unless it was actually banned).

What the fuck are you Waps doing here? Animuspot's five forums down.
No film has ever been banned in America, at least in the last decade or so. The price's unreasonable as it's a niche product, at least from the perspective of American distributors. That's likely to change with the remake, of course.

The original BR is a fun B-movie with little substance beyond the three leads. Even the "message" of the book (Japan is losing the respect of its children and decides to do something about it) is virtually lost on the movie.

That said, a US remake is pointless and probably won't come to fruition for the reason listed above.

They bought the remake rights to the book, not the movie.

Really? BR was released in France a few years ago, and I don't think France has more to spend than the US regarding that kind of stuff...

The cost has been cited as one reason. Other reason, reading this, is that Toei wants the movie to have a wide release. Both aren't feasible for smaller distributors, and big studios probably don't didn't want the controversy. Of course, that same page has Toei guys saying that the content and themes are the reason. Whatever you pick.

It's also likely that they charged higher for North American distribution, as that would garner more money than France.

Controversy = sales, everyone knows this. Besides it's not like America hasn't dealt with films of similar themes, Lord of the Flies and Elephant come to mind.

No one picked it up for the same reason noone picks up jsut about every niche Japanese film: the wapanese have already downloaded it.

Different regions. Original was done in Japan, which is known for having limited money on Live Action flics. The company purchased the rights to make a remake, as they know they can make more money by remaking it with a bigger budget and catering to their regions tastes rather than just buying the rights to release the foriegn version in theaters.

The original "ring" film, I believe, led to 5 different regional remakes.

It has nothing to do with when the movie was released. Rather with believed higher profits due to releasing a regional version over a foriegn dubbed or dubbed version.

I didnt see the original film, but have read the book. The concept you quoted is quite spot on. Maybe the film stated that, but in the book, it was just an annual event the military used to gain information.

I think the concept of the movie is just to watch Japanese schoolgirls killing each other. ;)

The reason why BR only really works in Japan is because of they are a homogenic society.
Because the movie was, initially anyway, about the social effects of an economically failing country, being all-Japanese eliminated the main issue that will plague the American remake: race.
In the American remake, you're gonna have to include whites, black, asians, hispanics, etc, and that means stereotypes. Then there's the social cliques that each of these kids hangs with...those will be stereotyped too.

If you have a look at Lord of the Flies, they were all white British boys.
If you have a look at Big Brother (in Australia anyway), they're all white. This season introduced the very first asian, and she was a chick. Never mind that she was the most bogan asian chick ever seen, and a total skank bot.
Lost handles it very well, although it too borders on certain cliches of each of the different ethnicities and social stereotypes.

But you get my drift.
When you get further along BR, it was more about the breakdown of friendships because of the extreme paranoia and the instinct for survival.
In a movie that includes kids of varied ethnicities, it would be very difficult NOT to bring up extreme racial prejudice as a reason to kill the other person.
The other main reason for a kill in the movie would be because of social clique.

The New York Times' website had an article on the remake and the reaction following Variety's announcement of the news. It's definitely a must-read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/mo...=1&oref=slogin

He'd never want to make a bad movie, huh? Please, Mr. Lee, explain The Grudge.

while i would love to see an american BR, it would spark unneccesary racial tension like Tama suggested and another whole guns/youth argument ala Columbine. in any case, BR the original movie is still one of my favorites and hopefully it will not be desecrated like other americanized asian films

I don't know if the grudge was base on a book but I know that the original movie sucked really bad, so making a remake from a really bad movie can't really result in something better...

The Grudge wasn't good, but it did have some freaky scenes in it. Well, one or two. I do remember being pretty creeped out for a few nights afterward. I still think The Ring is the best J-Horror remake so far. Now, Ring 2 ...I want to forget that ever happened.

Well, at least it's guaranteed to suck. That's better than having some hope of a decent movie only to have that dashed away in an instant. Good ol' america, you never disappoint.

Did anyone like BR2? I personally thought there were okay parts but I was falling asleep. Br1 I thought was wicked and if there was a remake, id go see it, even if it sucked, just for the hell of it.

BR2 was awful. Entertaining, but awful and a disappointment. I was actually really sad to see they dropped the ball on it.

man...i remember watching the part when
SPOILER WARNING (i dont know how to do the spoiler tag)
edit: nvm figured it out

The film has nothing to do with race at all, so they're rewriting the entire script now with a racial subplot? Even if they did, when has any film had such an influence as to provoke school shootings and racial tension? I think it would be a filmmaker's dream to have that kind of power.

I vote Arnold Schwarzenegger as Kitano.

I was gonna say "So I guess they got bored of making movies out of comic books then" but then I remembered that Battle Royale is also in comic book form. ._>

Well, it's not all that uncommon to find a novel being adapted into a manga in Japan. The manga came before the movie did anyways.

lol jokes. Kitano was such a weird character.

Now that I think about, this remake could actually be pretty decent if they actually follow the book more closely. You know, not just "lol island with kids killing each other", but character development and attachment.


oh wai- this is american film. nvm

mmm if they do that, it could get a bit long. lol i loved...yeah im spoiling stuff again lol

Meh, the average length these days is about two hours, closer to three for movies that you know will be decent. In that time, you could put a lot of development into the film. You just have to know how to cut down conversations and what to exclude.

Like I said though, American movies are generally crap. They're probably going to make the remake shot for shot, just with american kids and more explosions. Which is a BIG shame since there's a lot they can use and a really excellent story they can tell... that, you know, actually means something.

But no one goes to the movies for shit like that anyways

This was one of the greatest movies I seen. I have also yet to see the second one.

I don't know what to think about this. Where I live, you can buy the Japanese film, so I don't really think I'd ever want to watch a remake. That's not because American = bad, it's just that I've seen Battle Royale already. It was good, and I don't feel the need to see the same story again, with different actors.

If you have to see the second one, watch the director's cut, Battle Royale II: REVENGE. It's still a crappy movie, but better than the theatrical cut.