The movie adaptation of "Death Note," originally a manga series penned by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, is confirmed to be in production, but no official release date has been announced. American film director Adam Wingard will be directing the highly anticipated film.
Netlflix confirmed that they have acquired the production rights from Warner Bros. Production, and is set to film the live-action show in Canada and the United States. Nat Wolff, who is known for his roles in "The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns," is set to play the role of Light Turner (Light Yagami).
Recently, Adam Wingard shared his thoughts about directing the film, wherein he expressed how honored he was and that he was looking forward to delivering the original Japanese series to a global audience. Producers Lin and Lee, via Movie News Guide, said that they will stick to the concept of the original story, highlighting the significance of morality and a universal theme where racial boundaries do not exist.
This means that the English adaptation will still retain the original plot of the story, despite tweaking some basic elements such as character names and roles. Light will still be the same high school boy who finds a magic notebook and uses this to cleanse the world from evil, believing in his own idea of moralism.
The murders lure the attention of the authorities and he eventually finds himself under the radar of a famous detective known as "L," a character carried over from the original manga. The supernatural entity Ryuk, known as the "Shinigami" in the manga, will also be carried over in the movie, but they have not announced who the role belongs to.
Wingard and the production crew has begun filming the movie. Netflix further announced that the expected global release of "Death Note" will be in 2017.