So what happens when an egomaniac with tremendous amount of money bumps into unlimited access to technology and volunteers who are more than willing to slave themselves for some extra cash? We get the real live version of Hunger Games. Yes. For real, brah.
Following the success of the movie franchise, we couldn’t say we didn’t see this coming, as its widely known that some elites and aristocrats find this kind of game super entertaining (😥). Remember when rumours about The Queen participating in child torture as an annual thing were swirling around the net? Rich people love doing crazy sh*t.
A brutal new reality TV show set to be launched in Siberia, Russia has sparked controversy after the rules for the contest state: “Everything is allowed. Fighting, alcohol, murder, rape, smoking, anything.” Sound familiar? The Hunger Games-style contest, called Game2: Winter, is the brainchild of millionaire Yevgeny Pyatkovsky, who has been accused by critics of promoting savage and bestial behaviour.
Game2: Winter will see 30 participants of men and women, armed with knives and dropped into the Siberian wilderness for a nine-month long survival test. Starting in July 2017, they will be competing for a £1.3 million prize (RM 7.1 million), and are expected to hunt and fish through ice holes to feed themselves in the bleak taiga forest in order to stay alive.
The daring contestants must be over 18 and declared mentally sane, will be allowed 100kg of equipment to last them until April 1 2018, and are not permitted to take in guns. They will have to pay a fee of £132,000 (RM 726,065) just to enter, where their trials and tribulations will be filmed by 2,000 fixed cameras which will be broadcast live online 24/7.
The extreme survival show will be translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic, and there has been interest from five countries to air it on mainstream television.
“The show will absolutely extreme,” said the show’s organiser, Yevgeny Pyatkovsky. He continued, “We will refuse any claim of participants even if they were to be killed or raped. We will have nothing to do with this. This will be spelt out in a document to be signed by the participant before the start of the show.”
However, despite the nonchalant approach to murder and rape, contestants are told the laws of the Russian federation still apply, and that if there is proof of criminality “the police will come and take you away”, so they should “obey the laws of the Russian Federation.”
Each participant will have a panic button linked to a satellite. If they use it, they will be evacuated from the taiga, but not allowed to return. All who survive nine months will share the prize money. Of course, there will be some safety precautions in place, but it would still take about half an hour to reach the area where the show will take place by helicopter.
So far, the filmmakers have had interest from professional rescuers, people without special training, professional travellers, entrepreneurs, photographers, jewellers and psychologists. Producer Nikolay Ginzburg said it sounds strange, but on this project it will be easier to survive not for a professional rescuer but for a simple person. It will be necessary to act intuitively, rather than following instructions.
If you’re curious about this hazardous game, head over to Game2:Winter for more information.
