Could Battle Royale Be Heading For TV?

Battle Royale – the cult Japanese film made in 2000 that was a hyper-violent forerunner to The Hunger Games (teenagers in a totalitarian state fight for survival in a government-imposed competition) could finally be getting an American remake, but not as a movie. The CW network (home of The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural ) is looking into the possibility of developing it as a TV series, reports the LA Times .

According to the site, “In the last few weeks, the CW has had talks with the project's Hollywood representatives about the possibility of turning the property into an English-language show, said a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorised to speak about it publicly. The talks were preliminary, but if a deal could be reached, the network would acquire rights to Koushun Takami’s underlying novel, then unpack and expand on it for an hour-long dramatic series.”

Looks like The CW wants to repeat the trick it pulled off with The Vampire Diaries – which was virtually a small screen Twilight , and launched not long after the first movie – by creating a small screen Hunger Games . The odd thing is, The CW had already been developing a project that sound like a small screen Hunger Games – The Selection , another story of young adults battling for survival in a dystopian future. The network did not give that show the green light for a series.

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.