Exclusive: Battle Royale Series In Development At Netflix
Netflix is home to countless international properties that have found new audiences on streaming, and the streamer seems to understand that popularity more and more. Now, our trusted and proven sources tell us that a brand new Battle Royale series based on the popular Japanese movie of the same name is coming to Netflix.
Battle Royale centers around a group of teenagers who find themselves involuntary competitors who must fight to the death, forced into these matches by a totalitarian Japanese regime.
Battle Royale was a Japanese action thriller released in 2000. The movie served as Kinji Fukasaku’s directorial debut. Battle Royale became an instant hit, and given the popularity (and controversy) of the Japanese film, we understand why Netflix would want to bank on such a project.
The Japanese film centers around a group of teenagers who find themselves involuntary competitors who must fight to the death, forced into these matches by a totalitarian Japanese regime. The Battle Royale Netflix series won’t just be an adaptation of the original movie but also that of a novel.
A year before the movie was released, Battle Royale – the book – was published. Written by Koushan Takami, the author completed the story in 1996, but uproar over themes about the government and the brutal depiction of students killing each other held up publishing.
The book, along with the film, found instant success, and the Battle Royale Netflix series is likely to find an audience too. Controversy only seems to make movies and television more attractive, and Battle Royale was met with plenty of pushback when the film premiered.
The Japanese movie was banned from the start in many countries. The distributor refused to sell the film to the United States for years out of fear of lawsuits. In 2010, it was released stateside by Anchor Bay Entertainment for a direct-to-video release.
Battle Royale and The Hunger Games
We can’t help but notice how the story resembles another popular book turned-movie adaptation. The Battle Royale series might be attractive to Netflix because it sounds similar to The Hunger Games.
“I’m a big fan of the Japanese movie Battle Royale, which is what Hunger Games was based on. Well, Hunger Games just ripped it off. That would have been awesome to have directed Battle Royale.”
Quentin Tarantino
The Hunger Games, also originally a novel, was turned into a blockbuster franchise of films. Catapulting her Hollywood career, the film starred Jennifer Lawrence in a story where the government forced children into similar death matches.
Quentin Tarantino once expressed a desire to direct a Battle Royale film. In doing so, he also compared the story to The Hunger Games, calling those novels a rip-off of the Japanese work. “I’m a big fan of the Japanese movie Battle Royale, which is what Hunger Games was based on. Well, Hunger Games just ripped it off. That would have been awesome to have directed Battle Royale,” he said in an interview with IndieWire.
While the premise of The Hunger Games sounds grim, it wasn’t nearly as brutal as Battle Royale. While we are uncertain whether Netflix will tone things down for their series adaptation, we bet it will still be darker than The Hunger Games.
With no other news than the plans to develop Battle Royale into a Netflix series, we don’t expect to be able to stream the new show for quite some time. The twin Hollywood strikes have halted most media productions, and we are uncertain of whether they will affect Battle Royale or not.
