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?

On a global scale, Misa-Misa has been dubbed, played and in some instances sung into life for the delight of Death Note audiences everywhere.

In honour of her monthly event on Death Note News, we have collected together the names of the twenty-one Misa Amane actresses from Death Note adaptations across the world. Who for you, amongst these ladies (and one gent), wore the face or spoke the voice of Misa the Second Kira?

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: deathnoteproduction@prodicle.com)

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:

The roles are just rolling in for Nat Wolff!  The American actor's calendar is quickly becoming inundated with work for 2016 - the year in which he's strongly rumoured (practically confirmed) to be playing Light Yagami in the US live-action Death Note movie remake.

Shooting on Adam Wingard's Death Note film is meant to begin in the Spring.  However, Nat Wolff has just been booked to appear in theatrical performances of Buried Child, running off-Broadway from February 17th through to March 13th 2016 (with previews for critics starting on Feb. 2nd).

Wolff will be playing Vince, whose arrival at his grandparent's farm throws everything into chaos.  He's left trying to explain to girlfriend Shelley why nobody seems to recognize him, amongst a family where sanity is held by a thread and dark secrets seek to arise.  A task made all the more heart-breaking and confusing, as he doesn't understand the reasons why himself.

Playwright Sam Shepherd won a Pulitzer Prize for penning Buried Child.  It will be staged at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, in NYC's Pershing Square Signature Center.  With soon-to-be  Kira actor Nat Wolff taking his place in The New Group theatrical company, under the  direction of Scott Elliott.

This is in addition to other recently announced parts for Nat Wolff in 2016.  He'll be starring as Jim Nolan in James Franco's movie In Dubious Battle, and also as Doug, a creepy loner who snatches and imprisons a woman expecting her conform to his will, in Jessica Manafort's film Rosy. 

While strongly expected to squeeze in global domination, the God of this New World arisen as Light Yagami in the American Death Note movie.  By the look of it, Nat Wolff is halfway there before his shinigami even dropped a notebook.  At least in terms of utter ubiquity!

Soon we'll be able to work out when Death Note filming in the USA will occur, just by looking for the gaps in Nat Wolff's diary.

Twitter has been in uproar, cheering on and retweeting US actress Arden Cho's comments about the US live-action Death Note movie, and its strangely Caucasian casting choices thus far.

Known for her bad-ass role as Kira Yukimura in TV drama Teen Wolf, Arden Cho was scathing about Death Note casting overlooking Asian actors in the USA.  She initially Tweeted:

Then, in response to Lauren, a commenter who wrote, 'MANY talented Asian actors/actresses to choose from and yet they whitewash the whole film!'  Arden posted:

Nor had she finished there.

Finally, Arden Cho had a greeting for Edward Zo (possibly tipped off by the furore on Twitter regarding her comments about whitewashing Death Note):

Asian-American actor Edward Zo had previously - and quite famously - been vocal on the subject of Death Note US live-action movie auditions excluding Asian actors.  Silence means approval and neither Arden nor Edward are prepared to be silent on this issue.  Nor are a whole lot of other people judging by the amount of retweets and replies each exposee and protest prompted.

What do you think?

2016 looks to be a big year for Light Yagami actor Nat Wolff.

In addition to starring in the American live action Death Note adaptation, he will feature in two other movies that year.

Nat Wolff is playing Jim Nolan, the idealistic leader of a 900 strong workers' rights movement rising up in 1930s California, in James Franco's dramatization of John Steinbeck's 'desperately honest' novel In Dubious Battle.

Finding the 'courage never to submit or yield', Nolan took on landowners with an impassioned zeal that saw him elevated to almost Christ-like proportions among the starving Californians  he inspired fight back.  Like Christ, he was ultimately doomed - sacrificed to the cause of maintaining the hegemony and demonstrating their overlord's might.

Based on a true story, In Dubious Battle describes the real world struggle of striking apple and peach pickers in Tulare County. 

It was called 'courageous' when Steinbeck wrote it, and subsequently highly suppressed. (Probably in case it caused the good folk of Visalia remember their history and take it upon themselves to fight injustice again. But mostly because it was perceived to 'promote' Communism.)  Nevertheless - and as a definite point in his favour insofar as I'm concerned - President Barack Obama cited In Dubious Battle as his favourite Steinbeck novel.

The movie is currently in post-production, due for release sometime in 2016.

Also just announced is Nat Wolff's casting in Jessica Manafort's Rosy.  He will be taking on the role of Doug, a lonely, young man who abducts an actress named Rosy.  He expects her to bow to his every whim, but she proves a much more difficult prospect than that.

The  part of Rosy is as yet uncast in this indie thriller. 

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 internet is currently abuzz with news that the Adam Wingard directed US Death Note live action movie is about to cast its Misa Amane.

Margaret Qualley (Jill Garvey in HBO's The Leftovers) is apparently in final talks to play the 'female lead' - according to an article in The Hollywood Reporter ('Leftovers' Actress Margaret Qualley in Talks to Join Adam Wingard's 'Death Note' (Exclusive) by Borys Kit, November 12th 2015) - though presumably that is Misa.

This relatively unknown US actress also played Raquel in the 2013 drama movie Palo Alto, wherein she co-starred with Nat Wolff - the actor strongly believed to have been cast as US Death Note's Light Yagami.

However, it's a little bit more than that.  Margaret and Nat have been dating since 2012. 

If both of these 'final negotiations' rumours are true, then we will be seeing an established long-term real life couple playing Misa and Light in the live action US Death Note movie.

Born in Asheville, North Carolina, on October 23rd 1994, her full name is Susan Margaret Qualley,

The mooted Death Note actress has even more famous familial credentials.  Her mother is A-list Hollywood actress Andie MacDowell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Green Card, Sex, Lies and Videotapes, Multiplicity) from her first marriage with male model Paul Qualley. 

Her sister Rainey Qualley is also an actress - recently seen in Falcon Song, Pink & Baby Blue and the TV series Mad Men - as well as a touring musician. Rainey opened for Loretta Lynn earlier this year, while her debut single Me and Johnny Cash is currently making waves in Country circuits.

Margaret Qualley originally trained as a ballerina, performing at the American Ballet Theatre and joining the North Carolina Dance Company.  She was apprenticed at the French Academy in New York, before moving to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Naturally the latter signalled a shift in outlook, whereby Margaret now sought to follow in her mother's footsteps as an actress.

Here she is in her most famous role to date, as Jill Garvey in The Leftovers.

If true, the casting of Margaret Qualley as Misa is bound to cause controversy, just as did the role of Light Yagami linked with Nat Wolff. 

Neither American actors are ethnically Japanese, though they will be portraying Japanese characters. While Hollywood is long past getting away with blackening white actors faces to play other races, the industry stands accused of employing its modern equivalent to endemic proportions.

In short, ethnically Asian actors need not apply for leading roles in Hollywood pictures, not even when the parts up for grabs are Asian characters.  As North American actor Edward Zo discovered, when he sought to audition for Light Yagami.

The furore here is already raging, as regards Death Note's US live action film. Margaret Qualley's casting in the role of Misa Amane is unlikely to help matters there.

Though in fairness, Misa looks less Asian than Margaret.