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6/21/08
Battle Royale II actress passes away: Miyuki Kanbe, who played
Kyoko Kakei in BRII, died suddenly on Wednesday June 18th of heart
failure. She was 24. More details at Anime
News Network.
5/01/07
BR remake prospects "seriously shaken" by Virginia Tech
slayings: The
New York Times reported yesterday that the recent killings
on the Virginia Tech campus has affected a number of horror/thrillers
that are in the works, among them the Battle Royale remake.
Another surprising revelation is that New Line has yet to complete
the deal for the remake rights, something that many fans had assumed
would have happened by now. Producer Roy Lee says in an interview
that while he's still interested in moving forward with the production,
a remake would have to be "a little more sensitive to the issues."
He also feels that had BR been in production at the time of the
killings, "we would have been slaughtered by the press."
7/10/06
The New York Times on the BR Remake: This
article in yesterday's Times revealed some details
about the Hollywood remake in the works, including the fact that
New Line Cinema has not (as of this writing) yet acquired the remake
rights to the film. Producer Roy Lee also dropped some hints about
the project that may be reassuring to some fans: the contestants
will remain high school classmates, and the new movie will draw
from the original novel as well as Fukasaku's film.
6/8/06
HELL FREEZES OVER:
BR remake in the works
Ain't
It Cool News is just one of many movie news pages shaking up
BR fandom today with news that a remake of Battle Royale is being
"set up" at New Line Cinema by Neal ("The Fast and
the Furious") Moritz and Roy (the King of Remakes) Lee. No
other names have been announced as being attached to the project.
Join in the ongoing debate at our newly-created BR
Remake Forum!
2/11/06
Still Revenge-less, but when it comes, it'll come
in two different flavors: The Tartan UK release of Revenge
has been pushed down further in the calendar; as of this post the
new date is May 22, 2006, but you're probably better off checking
the Revenge
delay thread on the forums for the latest updates from Akira
7 and other fans. Some good news: There will actually be two releases
of Revenge--a deluxe limited edition with a tin case and collectible
film cell, and a normal two-disc edition.
BRII
on Netflix: Meanwhile, the original version of Battle Royale
II, Requiem, has made its way into the Netflix library.
Netflix has imported the Wision release (see below), which includes
R0 NTSC versions of Requiem and the Special Version of the first
film. The translation leaves plenty to be desired (BRII reads like
a translation of a translation), but they do the job.
9/17/05
No Revenge in 2005: Akira 7 reports that yet again,
Tartan UK has revised
its release date for the long-awaited tin to January 30, 2006.
7/10/05
Revenge is a disc best served cold: Tartan UK has postponed
the release of the BRII Special Version Tin from its original August
22 date to December 5. (credit to "Akira 7" on
the BR forums for
the heads up)
Battle Royale and Battle Royale II
box set: Wision, a Korean label, has released Battle
Royale: Special Version and Battle Royale II: Requiem
(the original version) in a special DTS box set with a bonus disc
containing behind-the-scenes specials for BR and BRII produced by
the Japanese channel WOWOW, and BRII: Gaiden, a behind-the-scenes
documentary previously only available in Japan. Unfortunately, there
are no English subs on the extras, and the movies themselves contain
the subtitling errors found in the Starmax Korea releases (which
they are basically a repackaging of). With the Starmax
release of BR out of print and getting harder to find, this set
is shaping to be the new "default" legitimate BR release
for American viewers. The box set is in stock at DVDAsian.com
and Yesasia.com.
5/28/05
New Battle Royale Forums address: the battleroyalefilm
forums are now also accessible through the URL battleroyaleforum.com.
Join the fun as we enter our third year of discussing anything and
everything Battle Royale (and then some)!
Battle Royale II: Revenge UK (R2 PAL)
DVD release date: the news is a little old, but the extended
cut of BRII will be released on August 22 by Tartan UK. The
two-disc set, much like the limited edition Special Version release
of BR by Tartan years ago, will come in a collector's tin with a
collectible film cel spliced from a print of the film. The film's
bonus disc reportedly contains 160 minutes of subbed extras! You
can pre-order at Amazon
UK and Play.com.
The two sites conflict in their reports of the release's encoding
(R0 PAL and R2 PAL).
Revenge
R0 NTSC bootlegs: For those who don't have qualms about
"unauthorized versions," are wary of the quality of the
UK release (which will likely have the infamous "ghosting"
problem), or don't want to deal with compatibility issues, Revenge
is already available as a subbed R0 NTSC DVD on eBay. The
subs are pretty well done, but there are no subs on the extra features,
of which there are only a handful.
2/5/05
Netflix BR is the Starmax disc: Quan
T. writes in and reports that the DVD being rented out by Netflix
is, contrary to the UK Tartan SE image shown in the entry, the region-free
NTSC Starmax "Director's Cut". If you're
one of those renting the movie and can't make sense of some of the
subtitles, follow the link above to read a properly-translated transcript
of the poorly-subbed parts!
1/25/05
Battle Royale II: Revenge DVD details,
new tie-in book: akira 7 treats us again to new
details and information about the February 21st 2-disc release (Region
2 NTSC, no subs), which will have 70 minutes of extras: see
this thread on the battleroyalefilm forums for akira's post,
which also includes a mention of the release of a new tie-in book,
Battle Royale II:Gaiden 3B 42 Students.
Battle
Royale on
Netflix:
The American online rental service Netflix
has, for some reason, added BR to its library, even though
there is no R1 release of the title. The picture in its
listing is of the UK PAL Special
Edition by Tartan, which will not play on many American DVD
players, which adds to the confusion. If you're one of the lucky
people who has this coming to your mailbox (there's currently a
long wait for the title), please let us know which version it turns
out to be--the speculation ranges from the highly unlikely scenario
that Tartan (which has recently opened a U.S. division) has quietly
acquired U.S. release rights and released the film with no press
whatsoever, to Netflix now adding import R0 NTSC titles to its library
(either a bootleg, the R0 NTSC Korean
Special Edition, or the R0 NTSC
Tartan UK Original Version).
10/07/04
Battle Royale II: Revenge new Region 2
(Japan) release date: The extended cut of BRII that
was originally scheduled for release in September finally has a
new release date (February 21) as well as pre-order links at Amazon
Japan and Yesasia.com.
Thanks to "akira 7" and "YukieUtsumi ClassRep"
from the forums for keeping an eye out!
For
older news (or newer olds), go here.
For up-to-the-minute discussion and news, visit the
forums.
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