What Jason Eisener's appointment implies, as director of Death Note's second unit, is that there will be at least two sets running concurrently.  (Prevailing rumour whispers that there will eventually be three.)

This development in the technical film-making side of things is borne witness is the latest update from the Directors Guild of Canada (download PDF, dated June 10th 2016), which otherwise doesn't add a great deal to what we already reported at the beginning of May 2016.

To spell out what that means - while Wingard oversees the action at one Death Note filming location; Eisener will be in charge of the other.  Double the opportunity for Death Note fans to oops-a-daisy accidentally wander into the movie shoot, and get themselves forcibly ejected by security or constabulary.

Hopefully with pictures and/or gossip, which we'll happily share.

Filming on Death Note kicks off in Vancouver on June 29th 2016.  It is currently due to finish on August 30th 2016.

However, same day information linking Selma and Straight Outta Compton star Keith Stanfield with Death Note was only reported by The Wrap (Adam Wingard’s ‘Death Note’ Jumps From Warner Bros. to Netflix (Exclusive), Thom Geier, April 6th 2016). 

A tip-off had been sourced from an 'insider', but no-one at Netflix was available to take repeated calls to query its veracity.

Nor yet the second shared insight. This was that Death Note was nearing production, when Warner Bros decided to end years of dilly-dalling by pulling the rug at the 11th hour.  But that bit was obvious.  It didn't take a Wammy level genius detective to deduce its truth. This was the only scenario which could account for the studio hiring director and stars for its cast; then suddenly sitting down at the negotiation table with Netflix, now poised to secure Death Note's production rights for itself instead.

A little out of left-field and accordingly met with surprise by the Death Note fandom, with no little wide-eyed pondering upon the implications.

Most fan comments clocked by Death Note News staff on balance seemed relieved that our tale was out of that studio's hands.  Few had really trusted Warner Bros executives in the US, since Black exposed their desire to show Light Yagami muddled, angst-ridden, but fundamentally a good guy, whilst getting rid of Ryuk for Satanic overtones vis-a-vis shinigami.

Now Netflix appeared (and remains so at the time of writing) to be making the Death Note movie; and, if Thom Geier of The Wrap has it right, bringing favoured actor Keith Stanfield into the project too.  Though nothing of the sort can be verified until the ink is dry on that deal documentation.

Which leaves fans of Death Note musing upon two big burning questions for the moment:

• Will Netlix release Death Note (US movie) in theaters/cinemas, or stream it only?
• Who will Keith Stanfield be playing?

With Light - and Misa - already taken, the field is wide open.  It could be any Death Note character at all (though the likelihood falls dramatically regarding roles amongst female dramatis personae).  In considering it, watch Keith Stanfield in action and see if a name presents itself. Then please do comment with your suggestions.  We might be the first to call it!

Has he the gravitas to be Soichiro Yagami perhaps?   Though, thinking about it, that might raise questions about whether Light (aka Nat Wolff) is really his biological son.   Aizawa?

As we've been asked this plenty of times and can finally answer it - Death Note's casting manger is Laray Mayfield, who we love for Fight Club.  The company's production address is 310 - 330A 555 Brooksbank Avenue, North Vancouver, BC, V7J 3S5.  (Tel: 604-983-5400  Email: [email protected])

Deadpool's James Bitonti has signed up as co-producer and assistant director.  There were actually bets being made here on a firm Deadpool/Death Note movie link being established soon. Unfortunately we kept it to ourselves instead of speculating in an editorial, else Death Note News would have appeared hot on the ball and well ahead of the crowd.

Bitonti, of course, is also known for X:Men and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  But Deadpool will be the clincher.

Adam Wingard remains the director, though his real name is actually WILLIAM Adam Wingard, according to the blarb.  Producers Masi Oka, Brian Witten and Dan Lin also retain their involvement in the movie; along with executive producers Roy Lee, John Powers Middleton and Adam C. Stone.

Newly brought on-board is executive producer Brendan Ferguson, known for The Butterfly Effect, Sucker Punch and The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus.  He will also be acting as unit production manager.  He'll be joined in the executive producer role by Doug Davison of How to Train Your Dragon fame.

Drew Locke is stepping in as production manager, Laura Livingstone is PC (anyone know what that stands for?) and Hans Dayal is location manager. He will be assisted in the role by Patrick Subarsky.

Finally, relative newcomer Ryan Halprin will be filling the position of production executive.  Whatever that is.  He was an assistant to Dan Lin on The Lego Movie, and co-produced the upcoming sequels.

Beyond that, you'll know more when we do.

Adam Wingard's Death Note is likely to start filming in June 2016.  But it won't be Warner Bros behind the production anymore.  At the moment, it's highly likely to be Netflix.

That is the startling news circulating today.

It's unknown why Warner Bros. has decided to surrender the project, which it's held firmly in abeyance since 2009.  During that time, the studio has ordered script rewrites; actors have been linked with various roles, but the rumours rarely came to fruition; while directors have come and gone, one - we're indebted to you, Shane Black - with horror stories of Warner Bros. US attempting to sanitize the Death Note story out of all comprehension.

By the end of 2015 through early 2016, it seemed that Warner Bros. finally had a format which worked for them and all concerned.  Adam Wingard was directing; Nat Wolff had signed up to play Kira, with his real life girlfriend Margaret Qualley poised to become the movie's Misa Amane.  There was much talk of initial photography beginning in the spring.

Hence the shock nature of the news (broken by Justin Kroll at Variety) that Warner Bros. chose now to put their Death Note film 'into turnaround'.

Opening up a bidding war which Netflix currently seems set to win. Though SFX and Lionsgate are also strongly in the running.  (Anyone else think that something about a Lionsgate Death Note feels so right?) 

However, there is some speculation that giving up Death Note is part of Warner Bros. previously declared cull on 'homegrown movies', in order to concentrate its resources upon extant franchises known to be successful.  The monetary profit for Warner Bros - raised by the sale of its film rights to Death Note - is expected to fall into the ballpark of $40m-$50m.

Adam Wingard, Nat Wolff and Margaret Qualley are all apparently still on board, whichever company snaps the movie up.

Netflix, of course, already has some data concerning the popularity of Death Note.  It recently started streaming full episodes of the anime, so can see for itself how many Western viewers are interested in this particular story.  However, it's not yet game over for the other bidders.  The current status for Netflix and Death Note is 'in final negotiations', which could pretty much mean anything, besides what it says on the packet.

As for fans, it's mostly looking like we will finally get our US live-action Death Note movie, whomever produces it, though it remains to be seen whether that will be available online only, or also released as a theatrical run.

Adam Wingard is known for his horror/suspense movies.  Lots of blood and guts, a touch of the old slasher genre, with plenty of gratuitous violence, should the script allow him to ninja some in.  Plus sex.  And expletives.  That's what we've come to expect from Adam Wingard, the man responsible for The Guest (2014), You're Next (2011) and segments of movies like V.H.S. and its sequel.  Hence Death Note was already promising to be a little gorily adult themed in amongst his oeuvre.

What Roy Lee had to say merely places a smile on several Death Note News staff-members faces, coupled with a 'obviously seen Deadpool and decided to risk it then' comment or two.

Meanwhile, editor Matti has already been trying to introduce Adam Wingard to the concept of filming the second arc too:

It's possible to read too much into things, when you're starved of information and the snippets are too few and far between. 

However, when strongly rumoured US Death Note movie casting for Light Yagami actor Nat Wolff has kept a resolute silence on the subject, then suddenly tweets a story linking himself and Margaret Qualley both with the project...

Well I'm sure I'm not the only one drawing conclusions in the sand.

 The Variety magazine Tweet that Nat Wolff  - or possibly brother Alex - shared with his followers linked to its news report entitled ‘The Leftovers’ Star Margaret Qualley Joins Nat Wolff in ‘Death Note’ (by Justin Kroll, Nov 12th 2015).

Assuming that Nat knows things that we don't know (i.e. the reality and status of those 'final negotiations' concerning his casting as Light Yagami); also that he knows the truth at the heart of all those news articles citing his own girlfriend as the 'leading lady' in Death Note's US live action movie adaption; and furthermore that Nat Wolff wouldn't want to spread disinformation amongst his fans on Twitter.

I conclude that everything written in the Variety piece about the Death Note movie is true insofar as Nat Wolff knows. Fair enough with everyone else?

So what do we know from it about this American Death Note film remake?

Therefore nothing that we didn't already know, but this time we know it with a touch more certainty.

The news that Nat Wolff has been cast as Light Yagami in the US live-action Death Note movie, hasn't gone down well in some quarters. 

Fans have taken to Twitter to accuse director Adam Wingard of white-washing his movie.  'White-washing' is the phenomenon whereby ethnically diverse characters are uniformly played by white American actors.

Hence such bizarre anomalies as Jake Gyllenhaal playing the eponymous royal in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, despite the Persian prince patently being, well Persian. Or Johnny Depp cast as First Native Tonto in Lone Ranger.

Or Nat Wolff as the Japanese Light Yagami.

But some Death Note fans haven't taken that lying down. If silence means approval, then Adam Wingard heard the disapproval loud and clear.

This single thread represents just a sample of the 'white-washing Death Note' protests being posted across Twitter over the past couple of days.

They've been coming thick and fast, ever since Nat Wolff as Light Yagami's actor in the US remake of Death Note was first announced. Though we should clarify that Wolff's casting isn't yet finalized.

Variety magazine, which revealed the titbit (Justin Kroll, ‘Paper Towns” Nat Wolff to Star in Adam Wingard’s ‘Death Note’, Variety, September 29th 2015), merely stated that the actor was engaged in 'final negotiations' for the part. That isn't cut, dried and sealed.

Nor have we received news since that a contract has been signed.

However, the debate doesn't appear to be dying down any time soon, as these two Tweets - picked at random from my Twitter stream - demonstrate.

Not to mention articles like that by Melissa Leon in The Daily Beast - Hollywood’s Anime Whitewashing Epidemic: Nat Wolff to Star in 'Death Note'  (September 30th 2015).

A guest writer is gearing up to discuss this issue in more depth on Death Note News, but in the meantime, what are your thoughts about this (actual or perceived) white-washing of Light Yagami in the US Death Note live action movie?

And, for that matter, which quarter Japanese, English, Russian and maybe French or Italian actor should play L?  That being his ethnicity as described in Death Note 13: How to Read.

Or don't you consider this to be an issue at all?

Vancouver born Osric Chau didn't seem to have a problem, when he gushed over the movie. The Asian-Canadian (mother Malaysian; father from Hong Kong) actor's sentiments were duly reTweeted by Adam Wingard.

Chau's Tweet inspired a vibrant response from the denizens of Twitter, worth the read to snap the current Zeitgeist.

Wow! You daren't take your eyes off the latest Death Note news for an instant today. It's all go!  Major stories cropping up everywhere!

Right now, it's the turn of the Adam Wingard directed US Death Note movie.  Showbiz magazine Variety has just (September 29th 2015) run a story claiming the the long awaited Hollywood adaptation of Death Note is close to casting its Kira.

Californian singer/actor Nat Wolff will play Light Yagami in the USA - as long as 'final negotiations' with the film-makers continue just as planned.

This is going to get confusing fast, as it seems the Death Note US film is due out in 2016. At least production is purportedly starting Stateside during next Spring.

That's in addition to Death Note 2016, which is the Japanese Warner Bros./Nippon TV movie, directed by Shinuke Sato.  As the working title suggests, we're expecting that to hit cinemas (or theaters, if you prefer) sometime in 2016.

Yep, you wait years for a Death Note live action film and two turn up at once.

A bit of banter broke out on Twitter between Adam Wingard - director of the (eventually) forthcoming US live action Death Note film - and his friend The Dope Geek, after the former forgot it was James Gunn's birthday.

Apparently we have a new rule for the Death Note now!

I love that Wingard found the correct number for an additional Death Note rule. It shows that he's doing his homework at least.

Though I suppose he knows that the Death Note fandom hordes would descend with anal attention to detail, if he got something that fundamental wrong. Even for an off-the-cuff joke.

And for the record, yep. I had to look it up. -.- 

However, I can confirm that rule LXVII of the Death Note is just as its US live action movie director stated:

The long awaited Death Note US live action movie will be on our screens from April 14th 2017.

At least that's what we're being told over on KPopStarz.

However, the same article - by Miguel Abesamis ('Death Note' Hollywood Remake Gets A Director; Adaptation Slated For An April 14, 2017 Release (August 18th 2015)) - also quotes Warner Bros stating that no release date has yet been decided.

Moreover, Abesamis's stated source (The American Adaptation of Death Note Has Its Director, IGN, April 28th 2015) doesn't mention a date at all.

I guess it's more of the 'wait and see what rumour comes next' ethos, in which we Death Note fans are very well versed.

What each report (and all my latest information besides) has in common is that Adam Wingard is most definitely still poised to sit in the director's chair. What Abesamis additionally adds to the general slush of gossip is that Wingard will switch to Death Note after he's finished with The Woods.

That does not bring us to an actual date though.

I suspect that whichever editor produced the headline misread something fundamental. Abesamis's article also discusses a Hollywood adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, which - one of his previous reports tells us - is due for release on April 14th 2017.

Or maybe none of them are coming then. He just likes the date.