Last year July, CW’s president Mark Pedowitz, told reporters at the TCA press tour in Beverly Hills that the channel was considering doing a TV Show modeling the Battle Royale Japanese cult book. “We’d love to do it,” said Pedowitz. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to make a deal with the producers, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Six months have past and oh what time can bring? Now, when recently asked, the chief of the station has pulled backed his enthusiasm for the project saying, “We were not able to do anything. We are not planning to do anything with Battle Royale … nothing occurred … there’s nothing to talk about … nothing happened.”
For those who don’t know, Battle Royale’s brutal substance makes The Hunger Games look like a day at grandma’s. Koushun Takami’s bestselling novel is based on a high school class, who is dropped off on an island, and given orders to kill each other – and the last person standing “wins.” Takami’s book gives off a more darker climax compared to Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy. It contains plenty of guns and violence that would have be very interesting to see.
In the wake of the recent school shootings a critic publicly questioned the show possibility asking Pedowitz, “You know what Battle Royale is about, right? I mean, you aren’t really going to have a show at this moment in the media landscape that’s about high school kids killing other high school kids, are you?”
The critic is right this show would have never hit the air…
