Roy Lee is the Producing talent behind such US remakes of Asian films as Grudge, Ring, Dark Water and Lake House. Now he's just talked about the Battle Royale US remake, the film that portrays school children murdering each other to save themselves.

From NY Times through Cinematical comes the surprise that the rights haven't been sold yet - don't do it!

New Line hasn't yet purchased the remake rights. But it is currently going through the chain of title, the final step in securing the rights, with an eye toward making a deal with the producers Roy Lee...and Neal Moritz, a producer of the "Fast and the Furious" films...

..."At Universal I remember they said, 'You're having kids kill each other?' I said, 'Yeah, that's pretty much the story.' They told me, 'There is no way Universal is ever going to make this movie.' "...

...Though Mr. Lee declined to discuss details of their plans, he did offer a few hints. The remake will still be about high school students. "We could make them a bunch of prisoners from jail taken to an island," he said, "but that would be pointless." It will take place in the United States...

..."If the original were put in front of an MPAA board, it would get an NC-17," Mr. Lee said. "So the remake is going to be at least an R."

So we are looking at a violent and bloody remake that will be quite true to the original...and it might still be school kids. Still, I'm worried about this trend of diluting the great stories and films we're seeing coming out of Asia.

Interestingly Lee has a full slate of US remakes of Asian movies - Departed, Eye, Shutter, Oldboy, In-Utero, Mission, Addicted, as well as the Ring and Grudge sequels. Man, this guy is bleeding the Asian market dry single handed!