Daniel Minahan
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Some folks defended the concept by describing the story as a combination of Battle Royale and reality television, which sounded just like Series 7: The Contenders.
The Running Man (Paul Michael Glaser, 1987), Battle Royale (Koushun Takami, 2000) and Series 7: The Contenders (Daniel Minahan, 2001) were all set in either the future or an alternate reality where disenfranchised people are forced to take part in a violent competition where they must fight for their survival.
Many have accused it of cribbing rather generously from Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale (which similarly concerned school kids being ordered by the government to kill one another in an isolated arena) and Daniel Minahan’s Series 7: The Contenders (a Survivor- style mockumentary in which innocents are drafted to a reality show where they must murder their competitors).
The picture's entire second half is dedicated to the morbid title festivities, and anyone familiar with Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," 1987's "The Running Man," 2001's "Battle Royale," 2001's "Series 7: The Contenders," or 2007's "…
Certainly it has a PG-13 rating to consider so it can’t be as dark and sadistic as the controversial Japanese sensation Battle Royale , but even the little-known Series 7: The Contenders had more to say in 2001 about the sickening depths to which people will sink for reality TV.
In the end, the pic is a little bit of "Predator" with a lot of "The Truman Show" and "The Running Man" (and the little seen or remembered "Series 7: The Contenders").
That it's all been done before in films like "Series 7: The Contenders," "Cheap Thrills," "Would You Rather," "The Den" and "Unfriended" with a climax lifted from "The Hunger Games," makes it all the more difficult to find much of interest here.
He claims to want to stop by and see his mother (Marylouise Burke, Series 7: The Contenders) because it's her birthday, but his real motive is more self-serving.