AICN is reporting that New Line Cinema is planning to continue the ongoing slew of remakes of cult Japanese shockers with it's latest project; Battle Royale.
Battle Royale takes place in a near future where a fascist government attempts to curb increasingly disruptive and violent students by introducing the Battle Royale; a random class of 16 year old students are taken to a deserted island and kitted out with a random array of weaponry, from the powerful to the absurd. The rules are simple - the children have three days to kill each other. Only one student must survive at the end of the third day. Breaking the rules, refusing to fight or simply being in the wrong map co-ordinates at the wrong time results in the student's explosive collar being detonated. A Lord of the Flies battle for survival begins as some fight for their lives, some try to rebel against the government and others simply go on sadistic killing sprees.
As with most Japanese movies picked for the remake treatment these days, the producers obviously loved the concept without bothering about the context. The original Battle Royale was a scathing social satire on the Japanese government and the country's spiralling youth problems. To be fair, this could easily be manipulated into an equally brutal and uncompromising satire in the right hands. As Harry Knowles suggests om AICN's report, it is just the kind of material that in the hands of Paul Verhoeven and Ed Neiumeier would probably work as an NC-17 rated treat.
However, that is wishful thinking as the project is being overseen by the Paul Walker of Hollywood producers; Neal Moritz. Who is Neal Moritz you ask? Think of the dumbest movies of the last five years or so and chances are at least on of these PG-13 rated abominations are his. The Fast and the Furious, SWAT, The Skulls III, Stealth, xXx, Torque, the list goes on.
So expect a PG-13 rated piece of crap which completely misses the point of the original movie and completely compromises the original vision so that the vital teen-retard skateboarding emo crowd can pay to get in. No writer or director is attached, but expect some first time writer and music video director to hop right on board.
The creatively bankrupt and risk-dodging executives that make modern Hollywood the embarrasment it is continues unabated.
