The Los Angeles Times newspaper have reported that The CW television network is currently in talks to acquire the rights for a US adaptation of Koushun Takami's popular survival novel, Battle Royale.
Although the talks are preliminary, the network has reportedly spoken with the title's Hollywood representatives about potentially adapting and expanding the novel into an hour long dramatic series.
Even though producer Roy Lee noted that as early as 2006, he and Neal H. Moritz were proposing an American film adaptation of the novel, but it was halted after the Virginia Tech shootings.Due to its similarities in theme, the production of a US adaptation was again halted after the release of Hunger Games novel in 2008. Lee commented, “Audiences would see it as just a copy of Hunger Games — most of them wouldn't know that Battle Royale came first. It's unfair, but that's reality.”
So far, "there is no deal in place." CW needs to get the approval of Takami, which according to Japanese law must be secured before any remake moves forward.
Battle Royale tells of school-children who are forced to fight each other to death. Under the guise of a "study trip", a group of students are gassed on a bus and brought on an isolated island, where the students are required to fight the other members of their class to the death, with only the surviving student being declared the winner.
Source: LA Times, Anime News Network
