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Ninja Sneak Preview - Keith Stanfield as L in Death Note! Netflix Confirms Actor Cast in Wingard's Death Note Movie - Filming to Begin in Vancouver This Month

13/6/2016

101 Comments

 
Adam Wingard Tweet revealing Keith Stanfield L in Death (June 13th 2016, 11am British time)

The new Death Note US L Keith Stanfield outs himself
in quick peek Twitter live stream. (June 13th 2016, 11am BST)
Keith Stanfield L Death Note news tweets

Keith Stanfield Death Note L Tweets June 10th and June 13th 2016
While all the world's press are busy confirming Keith Stanfield's undisclosed role in the Wingard directed Death Note movie, we can tell you precisely what part the Straight Outta Compton actor will play.

Unannounced officially, equivocally true nontheless: Keith Stanfield has been cast as L.

Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

At 11am British time (June 13th 2016), tipped off by dozens of sources that the actor's place on the cast list was now official, Death Note News editor Matti popped on over to his Twitter account to follow him.

Just in time to find Keith Stanfield sneaking in a live feed dancing to a tune of Big L - his finger making that familiar Lawliet mononym shape.

Moreover, that live stream had been retweeted by Adam Wingard and was a mere 39 seconds old.  Within a minute it was all gone, deleted from its Periscope.TV host, the Twittersphere and cyberspace as if it had never been. 

But for our screenshot, of course.

Could he get more blatant?  Apparently yes!  As - we're calling it - Death Note's US L actor Keith Stanfield added two more Tweets to fill the void left by his missing live stream.  One posted three days ago; the other just now.

Reproduced below, the first read simply 'Hold this L', while the latest retweeted 'Perception is key' - a three year old message (dated September 13th 2013) from @thefirst L, the apparent Official Twitter of L from Death Note.  An RPer who right now probably can't believe their luck!
What added impetus - or dissolution - this development brings to the current raging debate regarding the white-washing of Wingard's Death Note cast remains to be seen.

Keith Stanfield is patently not a Protestant White American - as per the overwhelming norm in actor ethnicity shown large upon Hollywood screens.  Then again, neither is Nat Wolff, an actor of Jewish heritage cast as Death Note protagonist and L's opponent Light Yagami.

However neither are they Asian (or Asian-American, as the case may be), which is the real flashpoint in this on-going controversy.

New Death Note Owner Netflix Confirms Keith Stanfield Casting; Adam Wingard Announces Jason Eisener for the Crew

As tipped for you in our April 7th 2016 post, Netflix has indeed secured the rights to make the US live-action Death Note film.  It's now known that the budget for Wingard's movie will be in the vicinity of $40-$50 million.

Usual great source Justin Kroll confirmed the Netflix Death Note movie rights news in Variety (Short Term 12’s’ Keith Stanfield to Star With Nat Wolff in Netflix’s ‘Death Note’, June 10th 2016).

While also breaking hot news implied by that headline and all previously discussed above - Netflix officially cast Keith Stanfield in Death Note, as per previously strong rumours reported here last month.

Death Note's director Adam Wingard has been making announcements too vis-à-vis additions to the movie-making team.  This one was via Twitter and informed us that Jason Eisener has signed up as 2nd Unit Director.

Poor thing.  This must be so exciting for the Canadian director of Hobo With a Shotgun, V/H/S/2 and ABCs of Death. I can't help but imagine that his addition will be a little lost amidst the clamour about the US film's casting of L.  Particularly as both public heads up came on the same day.

But Eisener didn't get a nice Variety article.  Merely an admittedly 'very excited' Tweet from Adam Wingard, and a mention here from us.

Well done, Mr Eisener!
Adam Wingard Death Note Jason Eisener tweet (June 10th 2016)

Jason Eisener is Death Note's 2nd Unit Director, as
revealed by Adam Wingard (Twitter, June 10th 2016)

Latest Production Information for Death Note Film

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.

Death Note production information Directors Guild of Canada
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.
101 Comments

Is There a Part for Keith Stanfield in the New American Death Note Movie?

25/5/2016

3 Comments

 
Death Note part for Keith Stanfield?

Will Californian actor Keith Stanfield be
in Death Note US live-action film?
There's a rather persistent rumour doing the rounds that US rapper and actor Keith Stanfield is about to be offered a role in the forthcoming live-action Death Note American movie.

If so, then who will he play?

The story began circulating in early April 2106, originating at The Wrap, passed on as part of its 'closing in - Netflix to take Death Note off Warner Bros' breaking news.

We were all reporting that one at the time. It hit our feeds and sources as the biggest Death Note film related information for months, at least as pertained to the frequently stalled Western remake.

It was certainly the most shocking snippet to grace our speculative minds since Shane Black told of some untenable changes demanded by Warner Bros early on.
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!

Miles Ahead Trailer - Keith Stanfield Starring as Miles Davies (2016)

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?
3 Comments

Death Note Movie to Begin Filming in Canada June-August 2016, Plus Deadpool Deputy Director Moves into the Frame

9/5/2016

3 Comments

 
We've actually got dates for the filming schedule of Adam Wingard's Death Note movie!  Plus one or two more details besides.

Last we heard, Warner Bros had put the movie up for grabs and Netflix was in the top running to nab it.  There's no firm update on that yet, just that the strong rumours remain one nod short of fact.

What we can say is that production is being overseen by the presumably newly formed (considering the name) company DN (Canada) Productions Inc. 

They will set up shop in British Columbia on June 22nd 2016, filming in various locations but mostly in and around Vancouver.   Though all dates are subject to change, Death Note's film schedule is currently pencilled in to end on August 30th 2016.
Death Note L and Light
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)

Diving into Death Note - Deadpool's Assistant Director James Bitonti!

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.
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New Trailer for Death Note: Light Up the New World!

27/4/2016

11 Comments

 
Warner Bros Japan have released a thirty-second teaser for its upcoming movie -the erstwhile Death Note 2016 trailer, now officially renamed Death Note: Light Up the New World.

The segment depicts one of the new - and purportedly worse ever - Death Note owner Sakura Aoi (Rina Kawaei) in the midst of a mass killing spree.  She has no ideological background, just the will to kill.  She tells Ryuk, "I will show more interesting things than Kira did."   He finally answers, "After all, humans are so interesting!"

Death Note: Light Up the World Trailer


Sensu Death Bonus Gift with Advance Ticket Sales in Japan

Early bird purchasers of tickets to see Death Note: Light Up the New World can look forward to receiving a limited edition sensu in thanks.

The Death Note sensu is not apparently mooted for general release.  It will just be available for advance movie ticket holders in Japan.

A sensu is a folding fan, one of Japan's traditional crafts.  This version - pictured in the Warner Bros advertisement (right) - has been labelled Sensu Death. Each panel replicates the cover of a shinigami notebook.

Death Note: Light Up the World is the fourth in the live-action movie series. Directed by Shinsuke Sato, it goes on general release in Japan on October 29th 2016.

In addition, Indonesian cinema chain CGV Blitz announced on Facebook (see below) that it too will be showing the movie.  Though no date was given for the Death Note movie opening night in Indonesia.
Death Note Sensu - early bird free gift for Death Note: Light Up the World ticket buyers in Japan
Facebook: CGV Blitz to show Death Note movie in Indonesia
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Light Up the New World - Death Note 2016 Gains an Official Title for Release

22/4/2016

1 Comment

 
Ready to know the name of the movie that we're all going to see in October 2016?  (Or as close as it may be coherently located within our own neck of the globe.)  Ready?  *Drum-roll*  Death Note: Light Up the NEW World.

Until now, this Shinsuke Sato directed Death Note movie has gloried under the working moniker of Death Note 2016.  We always knew it would change with the only bets being about how bad that final title might be, for this live-action sequel to the earlier trilogy of Japanese movies.  All things considered, Death Note: Light Up the New World isn't too bad.  Not when compared to some that we'd contemplated here ourselves.

Perhaps a little cheesy, with the strong potential for disappointment, as we doubt very much that we'll see much of Light Yagami beyond reference or the occasional flashback.  Probably just the former.

Warner Bros Japan announced the film's final and official retitle with a poster featuring its three main cast-members:
Death Note: Light Up the New World first poster
This poster announcing a name-change for Death Note 2016, first appeared in the Japanese press on April 8th 2015, trickling out across the world thereon.

It depicts new characters Yugi Shion, Tsukuru Mishima and Ryūzaki perched on chairs above a scattering of six death notes, topped by that fruity shinigami favourite - a shiny, new, red apple.

(Be still your immortal beating heart, Ryuk.  If we put together to get you a whole basket of the stuff, would you go and be bored somewhere else instead?  Like another planet or plane of existence entirely, please. A few Granny Smiths really aren't worth the wanton destruction of humanity, with a theatre of war on a global scale enacted in genocide; forced rendering of all our civil and human rights; terror; and enslavement.  Do it for oil, like everybody else.)

Reflected within the polished floor-tiles, we see the faded, pixelating visages of their predecessors - Light Yagami and L - both deceased with ten years standing between their stories told in the first movies, and the present day recounted in this.

Death Note: Light Up the New World will open in Japanese cinemas on October 29th 2016.
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Warner Bros. Surrenders Death Note US Live-Action Movie; Netflix Bids High

7/4/2016

2 Comments

 
Variety breaks Death Note Netflix story April 7th 2016
How the story was broken
at Variety magazine by Justin Kroll
(April 7th 2016)
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.

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Shō Nanase: Death Note 2016 New Character Revealed - Only Female Investigator on the Death Note Counter Measure Headquarters Special Team

31/3/2016

3 Comments

 
Shō Nanase (Mina Fujii) Death Note 2016
Mina Fujii has joined the cast of Death Note 2016 - live-action Japanese movie - currently being filmed in Japan.

She will play Shō Nanase, a member of the Death Note Counter Measure Headquarters Special Team, serving under Tsukuru Mishima.

As yet, she constitutes the only female member of the investigative team to date, fulfilling a role akin to Shoko Himura in the TV drama or the SPK's Hal Lidner in the manga/anime.  If only as the token woman in the squad.

Though known as a Japanese actress, Mina Fujii was actually born in San Diego, California, USA, on July 15th 1988.  However, she was with her parents back in Japan by the age of seven, when she featured in the 2005 movie Simsons.

By the age of nine, when she was in the 2007 Fuji TV drama Broccoli and the film The Signs of Love, Mina was already becoming a household name in the Japanese entertainment industry. Since then, she has barely stepped out of the limelight, appearing in movie and television shows practically every year of her life.

In Japan, she is most well-known for he role as Aoi Asada in the television drama Bloody Monday. While Koreans tend to cite her appearance in the music video for KPop band TVXQ's Why Did I Fall in Love with You?

Mina Fujii speaks fluent Korean, in addition to Japanese and English.

Most recently, she has hit Japanese small screens in the reality TV show We Got Married Global, alongside Lee Hongki - KPop singer with the band F.T.Island.  It was only a virtual marriage for television. Nothing binding in real life.

At this time, nothing else is known about Mina Fujii's role in Death Note as Shō Nanase.
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Tsukuru Mishima: New Photographs from the Set of Death Note 2016

31/3/2016

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A couple of officially released stills from the Japanese live action Death Note 2016 have been circulating about the internet.

They depict actor Masahiro Higashide in his role as Tsukuru Mishima, main investigator with the Death Note Counter Measure Headquarters Special Team.

This was a sub-set of the Japanese law enforcement authority that was created by Soichiro Yagami in the aftermath of events shown in the previous movies.  Following his death - sometime during the intervening years - Mishima took the lead.

His character is known as such an expert on all things related to Shinigami notebooks that his nickname on the force is Death Note Otaku.  How many of us have previously claimed that particular accolade as our own? 

While we have no context for the pictures, we do know that six Death Notes will be falling on the Earth in this next movie.  Presumably that accounts for the grim expression worn by their chief researcher, investigator and all round know it all.

Perhaps in the image below, he has found some kind of lead revealing the enormity of the task ahead, or else demonstrating the horrors that one or more Death Note owners are set to unleash.

Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata have intimated that this will be the darkest Death Note story yet, one which puts firmly in the shade that surrounding Light Yagami.

Death Note 2016 (working title) will be released in Japanese theatres on October 29th 2016, just in time for Halloween.  There is no word as yet about the live-action movie being subbed or dubbed for foreign audiences. Though we can assume that will be a thing, given time and patience.

Any thoughts on it at this juncture?


Images courtesy of Warner Brothers Japan.
Death Note 2016 Masahiro Higashide Tsukuru Mishima
Masahiro Higashide in his role as Tsukuru Mishima Death Note 2016
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Spin-Off Matsuda - Barely Known Canon Short Movie about Death Note's Matsuda

20/3/2016

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While we're all familiar with the movie L Change the World - even those who wish they weren't - even long-standing Death Note fans might have missed the fact that Matsuda got his own short film in relation to it.  As these stills from the ten minute movie attest:
Death Note Spin-Off Matsuda still
Sota Aoyama in Death Note Spin-Off Matsuda still
L Change the World: Spin-Off Matsuda still
Broadcast on Japanese television, initially on February 8th 2008, Spin-Off Matsuda was basically made up of scenes deleted from the movie itself.  It followed the fortunes of Touta Matsuda in a story which ran concurrently with those seen with L, Maki and Near.

It starred Sōta Aoyama as Matsuda, reprising his role from the other live-action movies in the trilogy (soon to be quartet).

As with the main movie L Change the World, Kiyomi Fujii wrote the screenplay. The spin-off covers Matsuda's issues with filing a final Kira case report, and a poignant meeting with L a fortnight before the latter's known and inevitable death.

Spin-Off Matsuda: L Change the World Special and Synopsis

The most common copy of Spin-Off Matsuda available on the internet is embedded here - in Japanese with Thai sub-titles.

There are no versions with English sub-titles on-line (or may not have even been made), but a brief synopsis runs like this:

Touta Matsuda's signature is required upon a document concluding the Kira case. He waivers over signing, because he's not sure that the case should be closed.  He can't get his head around what precisely Light believed with regard to justice, nor what L did to thwart him.

Soichiro Yagami pre-empted this and left a note for Matsuda stating, 'Go see Ryuzaki'.  So Matsuda goes to visit L, carrying with him a gift - a box of cakes.

L gratefully receives them with the comment, "A farewell gift to a person going for death. I shall thank you."

This incenses Matsuda, who can't understand why L continues to work, when he only has two weeks left to live.  "Stop working!" He rants, "Do anything you like, such as dating with a girl, or travelling anywhere you like, whatever. Why don't you spend the rest of your time for yourself! At least do not pretend dying is no big deal!"

Once he's calmed down, Matsuda is contrite about his behaviour. He calls Soichiro and apologizes for being mean to Ryuzaki.

Just on it, a delivery man brings a gift from L - a basket of crepes with the message, 'Sugar will improve your brain function. Eat lots of crepes to become clever - YOU IDIOT!'

Matsuda exclaims, "L, you Hyottoko guy!" (Hyottoko being the mask worn by L in the movies.) And stands there eating, crying and pondering on how L can bear knowing that he only has 23 days left to live, yet still carry on. 

The movie short ends with Matsuda crouched in the street, overwhelmed by the sentiment and his emotion, dwarfed by the architecture of the city around him.

Posted as Part of

Death Note Month of Matsuda
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Dark Tone for Death Note - US Movie Remake Sure to Get R Rating

24/2/2016

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We saw it coming, as soon as Adam Wingard was brought on board.  Now Warner Bros Death Note producer Roy Lee has confirmed it - the US Death Note live-action movie is going to be for adults.  A dark tone with lots of blood being spilled.

Speaking with The Collider's Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, at the recent DICE Summit in Last Vegas, Lee stated that Wingard was just 'waiting for us to officially green light the movie, but we have a cast in place.'

Adding that Death Note is 'a movie we’re planning on making this year.'

Then came the vital bit.  Weintraub asked about the target audience and Lee answered,
“It’s definitely for adults. It is zero chance it will be below an R-rating,” and went on to say that the tone of the film “will be one of the first manga adaptations that feels very grounded but still has fantastical elements.”
~ Roy Lee, The Collider - Exclusive: ‘Death Note’ Movie Rating and Tone Revealed by Matt Goldberg (February 22nd 2016)
US Death Note producer Roy Lee

Death Note producer Roy Lee
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:

Just started watching 'The Guest'. 30 mins in: David is fundamentally an older #DeathNote Mello. Just saying. Enjoying so far @AdamWingard

— Death Note News (@MRSJeevas) February 23, 2016
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Death Note Creators Ohba and Obata Comment on new Live-Action Movie

8/2/2016

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Banner Death Note 2016 official twitter account
It has been an incredibly exciting week for Death Note fans, and now we find out that Takeshi Obata has been overseeing the artwork for Death Note 2016's brand, new shinigami(s) too.

On the 4th of February 2016, the official Twitter account - for this new Japanese live-action Death Note movie - announced the actors involved in the film, character introductions, as well as posting comments from Obata and Ohba themselves!

The comments, translated from the original Japanese, state:
Tsugumi Ohba on Death Note 2016 live action movie
“It will be interesting, and there is a possibility that more Shinigami will pop up because of the six Death Notes.

There is a luxury cast involved in the movie, and I’m excited to see how they will react to everything.  You absolutely can’t hold back the excitement.”
– Ohba-sensei

Takeshi Obata on Death Note 2016 live-action movie - tweeting Feb 4th 2016
“The previous work on the Shinigami was more realistic, but I think the atmosphere is a lot darker now.

The art of the new Shinigami was closely supervised. I am also looking forward to seeing the completed product.”
– Obata-sensei
Japan's new Death Note movie will be released sometime this year, and cast comments are available at the official movie website.
Report by Renchan
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Death Note Movie Makers Gearing Up for Filming

6/2/2016

1 Comment

 
We have two Death Note films coming this year.  The proof is in the Tweeting.
(Incidentally the actual date for Japan's Death Note 2016 movie release is September 13th 2016, according to IMDb.)

Japanese movie Death Note 2016 starts filming

'Death Note 2016 begins! Thank you' reads this Tweet
from the official Japanese Warner Bros account
on January 6th 2016 - presumably referring to filming
Meanwhile, over on the official Death Note 2016 website:
Death Note 2016 lead actors
 The recently announced stars of Death Note 2016 - Sōsuke Ikematsu, Masahiro Higashide and Masaki Suda - have been commenting on their new roles.

Masahiro, who is playing Death Note researcher and investigator Tsukuru Mishima, notes that he's grown up knowing this story.  Therefore it's difficult not to be influenced by what has gone before; nor to avoid the pressure in getting it right.

He views the latest story as a three-way, intertwined battle between geniuses. He is enjoying making the movie and hopes that we enjoy watching it, including those discovering the story for the first time now.

'New L' Sōsuke - aka Ryūzaki - is also feeling the pressure: to live up to the legacy left by Ken'ichi Matsuyama in the earlier movies. He feels excited about filming and notes that every day the cast are directed in exceeding the standard of the day before.

This new Death Note story, he feels, contains the central message that human beings are weak and foolish creatures.

Masaki equally remembers when he was in the audience watching earlier Death Note live-action films. That makes it all the more thrilling to be starring in one now.

He sees in his own legacy a hint of Mello and Near in the original manga, insofar as his cyber-terrorist Kira worshipper character Yūgi Shion - plus the parts played by the other two - represent the successors, heirs or children of Light and L.  This is the movie equivalent of a Death Note second arc.

He hopes that their 'second half' story will surpass expectations laid down by the first wave of Japanese live-action Death Note movies ten years ago.

Personally they would have had my (tentative) vote straight out, if they'd just HAD Mello in one of these live-action movies.  And I don't mean disguised as a young schoolgirl.  We're all looking at you, L: Change the World and Maki.
Reading Death Note Adam Wingard Director

US live action Death Note director Adam Wingard,
re-reading the Black Edition,
as per his Tweet on December 10th 2015
Adam followed his with this Tweet, also dated December 10th 2015:
Death Note director Adam Wingard Black Edition luggage Tweet Dec 10th 2015
Death Note Black Edition I
Death Note Black Edition II
The complete Black Edition Death Note, as read by Adam Wingard,
is available in our Death Note Books and Manga Store

1 Comment

New Death Note Movie Opens in Japan (But it Only Vaguely has Anything to do with Us)

29/12/2015

4 Comments

 
Live Action Death Note movie by AMG Entertainment

Irish Death Note live action film poster by AMG Entertainment (Jan 5th 2016)
Well, this is exciting, isn't it?  We all have our eyes on the Japanese Warner Bros Death Note 2016 live action movie, plus the US remake Death Note film, when suddenly a wild Death Note live action film appears from Ireland!

There has been no heads up about this at all, at least insofar as we've seen at Death Note News - and we like to think we have our finger on the pulse of all things in the franchise. Imagine our surprise then to return from seasonal holidays with the family to find a Death Note movie apparently plucked from thin air and doing the rounds of the Japanese promotional circuit.

This Death Note movie will be released in Japan by AMG Entertainment on January 5th 2016.  It involves a black notebook within which the names of criminals are listed. They soon meet a sticky end in mysterious circumstances - some of which occur whilst the victims are incarcerated in prison cells.

However, that's where the similarity ends.

The story is set in Ireland (or Scotland - reviews diverge on the point) and the protagonist is a man named Six (Liam Cunningham).  He appears as the Mysterious Stranger in a remote village, where rookie cop Rachel (Pollyanna McIntosh) is just starting her first night.  Not a great start to her policing career. Six takes over the minds of anyone with a dodgy past and forces them to basically do gory things to themselves and/or co-operate in their own demise.

Neither Light Yagami nor the rest of the usual Death Note cast are in this story. In fact, it appears to have no official sanction or any other relation to the main Death Note franchise.  At best it's a derivative work or some kind of extended fan work.

Or should that be merely a bad translation?   It seems that this Brian O'Malley directed Death Note movie was originally called Let Us Prey, and that's how it's still listed on IMDb.  Here is its rather gory trailer:
In short, though heavily marketed in Japan as a live action movie called Death Note, it's nothing to do with the manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. It's fundamentally the same horror/slash film marketed in Europe and the US, in 2014, as Let Us Prey.  However, with its Biblical references and Angel of Death/Justice themes, it might appeal to fans of Death Note anyway.
4 Comments

Teen Wolf's Arden Cho Wades in on the US Death Note Whitewashing Furore

2/12/2015

6 Comments

 
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:
Arden Cho Tweet about Death Note whitewashing

Source: Twitter
Death Note whitewashing Arden Cho quotes Viola Davis

Source: Twitter
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:
Arden Cho Death Note movie tweet re Asian actors

Source: Twitter
Nor had she finished there.
Arden Cho heartbroken Death Note whitewashing

Source: Twitter


Before coming back for more:
Arden Cho tweets about whitewashing Japanese characters Death Note

Source: Twitter
Whitewashing Death Note Arden Cho Tweet

Source: Twitter
Arden Cho takes down a troll re Death Note whitewashing

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

Source: Twitter
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?
6 Comments

Three Roles for Nat Wolff in his 2016 Death Note Year

24/11/2015

0 Comments

 
Death Note actor Nat Wolff photograph Wikipedia
US Death Note actor Nat Wolff
Photography by Nehrams2020
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.

John Steinbeck In Dubious Battle 1936 cover

Buy In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck
1936 hardback cover
on Amazon US
In Dubious Battle Audiobook John Steinbeck

Buy In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck audiobook
on Amazon US
In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck cover

Buy In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck
on Amazon US
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. 
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