While on ‘The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast’ Quentin Tarantino expressed his distaste for The Hunger Games, while discussing his 20 greatest movies of the 21st century so far. Battle Royale, his #11, he said:
“I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn’t sue Suzanne Collins for every fucking thing she owns,” Tarantino said. “They just ripped off the fucking book! Stupid book critics are not going to go watch a Japanese movie called ‘Battle Royale,’ so the stupid book critics never called her out on it. They talked about how it was the most original thing they’d ever fucking read. As soon as the film critics saw the film they said, ‘What the fuck! This is just “Battle Royale” except PG!’”
Ooop!
Come off it! Battle Royale didn’t have a generations of different people kept down and forcing them into it knowing what the likely outcome would be. As far as the film version showed us it was a one off as the teacher got fed up with students acting like arseholes all the time.
Also the revenge aspect of those being forced to entry eventually getting to the capital and killing snow.
The only real commonality is having people kill each other for survival after being forced into a situation, that basic premise is the same, everything else is different.
Tarantino should concentrate on delivering another decent movie.
BR was a book first, and what about stories like The Running Man, Soylent Green and Fahrenheit 451?
What about the stories that predate BR and the hunger games? Ex: the lottery, Shirley Jackson