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Lionsgate Limited Announces Battle Royale 4K Ultra HD Release for 25th Anniversary
posted on by Anita Tai
Lionsgate Limited will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the live-action Battle Royale film with a special 4K Ultra HD release on December 9. The release includes the film's director's cut and theatrical versions, as well as special features. Pre-orders began on Tuesday.
The promotional image teases a T-shirt. Oliver Barrett drew the SteelBook's art.
Lionsgate screened the film in 4K resolution in U.S. theaters on October 12, 13 and 15 as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations.
The original 1999 novel followed a class of junior high school students who are forced to play a deadly game. On a deserted island, they must hunt each other down, and the last student left alive wins. The novel inspired two live-action films that have earned cult popularity, and the original novel's title is now often used to describe similar stories by other creators centering on characters pitted into brutal last-man-standing death games.
Battle Royale first opened in Japan in 2000 but did not have a full American theatrical release at the time, in part due to the aftermath of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado. The film did get DVD releases in Great Britain, Hong Kong, and other regions at the time.
Viz Media published the original novel in North America, and its Haikasoru imprint reissued the novel with a newly revised text. Viz Media also the published the Battle Royale: Angels' Border spinoff manga. Tokyopop published 15 volumes of Taguchi's manga version in North America.
Source: Lionsgate Limited via City on Fire
