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While he keeps his fans wondering what his next (and last) movie will be, Quentin Tarantino has dropped some incendiary quotes about The Hunger Games franchise, calling it a rip-off of the Japanese classic Battle Royale.
During his recent appearance on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, the filmmaker noted that Suzanne Collins' story, which follows a group of teenagers forced to fight to the death in a dystopian country's televised contest, is surprisingly similar to Koushun Takami's novel, which focuses on a group of high school students forced to fight to the death by Japan's totalitarian government.
"I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn't sue Suzanne Collins for every fucking thing she owns," Tarantino said. "They just ripped off the fucking book! Stupid book critics are not going to go watch a Japanese movie called Battle Royale, so the stupid book critics never called her out on it. They talked about how it was the most original thing they'd ever fucking read. As soon as the film critics saw the film they said, 'What the fuck! This is just Battle Royale except PG!'"
Fans quickly took to social media to clap back at Tarantino, arguing that, although the premises of both stories are quite similar, they are ultimately "completely different stories".
"The only actual similarities between the books is there is it's about a child death battle in a large arena. The actual rules of said battles, the dynamics between the characters, the backgrounds of the worlds they take place in, and much more are completely different," explained one user on Twitter, with another one adding: "Battle Royale is a classic, but fundamentally a very different story than Hunger Games."
Many other users noted that the 'teens fighting to the death in a dystopian setting' premise hardly started with Takami, who at the time acknowledged the influence of Stephen King's previous works such as The Long Walk and The Running Man. Some even go as far as Shirley Jackson's influential 1948 short story The Lottery.
"He doesn't even know the name of "the Japanese writer" who wrote Battle Royale (Koushun Takami), but wants us to believe he understands both books well enough to know that one is a ripoff. Nobody who believes this has read both (or likely either) of these books," argued a user.
"Just because that’s the only familiarity that Tarantino has with that trope, doesn't mean it's the only time it's been used. And Star Wars borrows from a ton of stuff too, and most importantly so does Tarantino," wrote another one, echoing many other comments pointing at the filmmaker's own track record with finding inspiration in other movies: "He would know, his entire career is built on ripping off other IPs."
"Quentin Tarantino? The guy who makes movies that are nothing but a collage of scenes and ideas taken from other movies? The lack of self awareness is so thick you could cut it into slices and serve it on a plate," added someone else.
For more news about movies (ripped off or not), check out our lists for the best upcoming movies in cinemas in 2025 and beyond, including The Hunger Games' new prequel Sunrise on the Reaping.
