The Producer Roy Lee, the man famed for taking Asian films over to Hollywood for remakes, has spoken about his plans for Battle Royale, and they still aren't good. Despite the recent resurfacing of the "films make us all murderers" debate, Lee is still planning the remake.

For those of you who don't know about this film it's originally a controversial book by Koushun Takami, which was then made into a film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. It wasn't originally a videogame as IGN have stated in their story from the Times.

The film is set in a future where kids are rebelling against the state, and so the state creates a Battle Royale where a class is chosen each year, at random, to head to a deserted island and kill each other. The one remaining classmate wins. Using this the state manages to retain a fear that keeps the population of children under control. The film follows this years chosen class.

Lee says that New Line has been pursuing the rights to the film, and despite recent events in the US it is still going ahead.

I really can't see this working at all in the US. It's just not something that the western society can remake effectively and I'm sure we'll see it descend into straight horror, missing all the subtleties and the subtexts of the original. It's bad news that the remake is still planned.