CW Picks Up a Show that Sounds Mighty Like The Hunger Games…

Megan Patterson February 1, 2012 14

The CW has just added a new show to their Fall 2012 lineup that sounds a lot like YA novel (and soon to be movie) sensation The Hunger Games. Called The Selection, and based on the book series by Kiera Cass (that hasn’t even come out yet!), it’s set 300 years into the future, and about a young woman who is selected to fight in a competition to become the next queen.

It’s not the first time the network has cashed in on a popular trend — The Vampire Diaries does reasonably well for the network after all, but I think this is the first time anyone’s adapted a series before the book has even come out. This seems like an incredibly risky move, because the books still have a lot of time to flop horribly. However, I think the books sound like they might actually be kind of good. And they’re just different enough from The Hunger Games to make fans of that series to want to read them. Not to mention the fact that everyone likes a show about ladies kicking butt (I do anyway), something that’s been fairly absent from television late.

But what do you think, gentle Readers? Hit, flop, too blatantly pandering to work? Let us know in the comments below!

Author’s Note: Whoa hey, whoa! Did not see in the book description that they’re competing for the hand of the prince, not for having the throne in their own right (I was thinking more like Queen Amidala type situation). The CW’s press material does not even mention this dude, so I don’t know if that means they’re not using that part, or what. Obviously, being in a competition for the hand of a prince is nothing at all like Hunger Games, and is hugely problematic in so, so many ways.

[via io9]

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About the author: Megan Patterson View all posts by Megan Patterson

Writer, editor, and co-founder of Paper Droids. When not keeping everyone updated on the latest in science, tech and gaming, you can find me at my personal blog, Vogue Made Me Do It, or playing way too many RPGS or watching too much TV. Sometimes I even go outside!

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Michele

This really irritates me as I have read a book EXCACTLY like this and this could go under laws of copyright as the book isn’t published yet meaning they are still waiting as the book I read is still in progress and each chapter is posted online and everything that has been posted on here is in complete relation of what has already written and I think you should really reconsider this option of publishing something that is not yours.
- Megan Patterson
  
  Is there really a book just like this on wattpad? (I don’t know what wattpad is, is it sort of like fanfiction.net?) That’s totally crazy. Unfortunately I think it would be really hard to prove whether the author of The Selection actually did copy it or not, because you would have to establish that she had actually seen this other book.
  - Michele
    
    Being this book hasn’t been published yet and the one of Wattpad is in construction but has been seen, it would only be fair to say the chances are bigger on saying she has probably seen it.
    - Megan Patterson
      
      You still have to prove it, by going into her web history and showing that she went there.
  - Michele
    
    Well she could delete her history so that’d be no use, would it?
    http://www.wattpad.com/3343509-the-princess-games
    Read for yourself!
    - Megan Patterson
      
      Thank you, I’m defintely going to investigate!
Josie

WOW this is soooo similar to a story on wattpad :L
- Megan Patterson
  
  What’s it called? I’d love to look into it, and maybe write about it, but I”m looking and I can’t find this story.
  - http://- Yukie
    
    It is called The Princess Games
    - Megan Patterson
      
      Well, it looks like the premise is the same, but the actual stories are very, very different. Copyright only applies to the expression of an idea, not the idea itself, otherwise no one could ever write any fiction ever if any part of it was like anything else.
http://pinkreina.wordpress.com pinkreina

I already read a good book that sounds strikingly similar to this book on wattpad. But the show does have promise, we’ll see what the show develops into. Heaven forbid that they show strong independent women – sense the heavy sarcasm there.
- Megan Patterson
  
  Yeah. They are for sure using the prince too — Gregory Peck’s grandson got the role.
http://dromedreaming.wordpress.com Ariel Kroon

Idk, I read the description and see that instead of fighting to live or make things better for the people and like the entire world, that end goal has been swapped out for marriage. From the poster, I assume “fight” is code for “wear froofy dresses”. Blech.

Kind of sounds like The Bachelor: EXTREME EDITION, and I am super-uninterested.