| With her role as Misa Amane looming, Margaret Qualley has signed up for another part to fill the gap before filming Death Note. She has joined the cast of Sidney Hall, a movie currently being shot in New York City. Starring Logan Lerman and Elle Fanning, its plot revolves around the eponymous Sidney Hall, author of a book about his own generation, who then disappears without a trace. So a little like Light Yagami then! Who notably exhibited penmanship in a book too; the impactful contents of which could equally be read, in a fairly abstract way, as a commentary upon the world as he experienced it - rotten - and who also vanished and hasn't been seen since. Margaret should be able to pick up some nice tips for her forthcoming performance as Misa Amane. Meanwhile Margaret Qualley is one of the stars of another movie out right now, which also has some distinct Death Note links. Ex-Death Note director Shane Black's The Nice Guys went on general release in the US on May 20th 2016. It's a neo-noir, crime/mystery comedy with buddy elements too; written by Anthony Bagarozzi, who was behind one of the earliest screenplay drafts for the US live-action Death Note movie. He still retains a credit for it, though Jeremy Slater has since reworked his script. Margaret plays Amelia Kutner in their movie - a missing woman, who demands to remain missing and even hires a heavy to ensure that continues to be the case. Unfortunately, Amelia's implicated in the reappearance of a dead woman, now more alive than her funeral suggests that she should be. Hence the sudden pursuit. Finally, Margaret has the final season of The Leftovers to complete, then she'll be free to take on Misa Amane when filming begins in Vancouver, Canada, on June 22nd 2016. |  Wonder if she ever fears becoming typecast... |
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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:
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?
Adrián Lavado, a writer with the Spanish e-magazine eCartelera, has gone one further than that. He wrote that Shane Black 'hacer una historia de venganza en vez de justicia y eliminar a los personajes conocidos como shinigami.' (Shane Black 'wanted a story about revenge, rather than justice, and to eliminate the shinigamis.')
The above led to irreconcilable differences between the director and Warner Bros., which ultimately resulted in a parting of ways. This half chimes with what Shane Black told Long Beach Comic Con back in October 2011. Then he revealed long-running disagreements over the direction of the Death Note story. He wanted an adaptation that was faithful to the manga, but Warner Bros. kept pushing for one that was morally black and white, with Kira more the flawed anti-hero than anyone who could be considered 'evil'. Every one of Yagami's actions had to be justified within the pursuit of justice; and the 'demon' shinigamis had to go. It was Shane who fought for none of that to happen. My reading of the situation is that Lavado has switched the views of Shane Black and Warner Bros. What do you think? - And muchas gracias to Álvaro for alerting me to the Spanish language report.  It hardly counts as an official announcement, but one feels just that little bit closer.
Until now, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has retained Shane Black's name as the director linked with Death Note the movie. Suddenly, overnight, he's been replaced by Gus van Sant. The best we can really say about this is IMDb's administrative team believe the gossip be true. So what do they know that we do not? It's not like they've jumped the gun too quickly either. For just over a week - since The Tracking Board broke the rumour on July 10th 2014 - news sources and blogs have been filled with people like me passing on the information: Gus van Sant strongly tipped to replace Shane Black as Death Note's director. Yet IMDb didn't budge. For eight full days, the site still had the director listed as that last officially acknowledged - Shane Black. So what changed for them? What made it much more likely to be occurring? IMDb isn't Warner Bros. There still hasn't been an authoritative update on the site since April 23rd 2014. But IMDb is Amazon. Surely a company that big has its contacts in Hollywood... Like I said, nothing here is official. But it sure feels much more like it is.  There's finally news about the Death Note movie! Just a couple of weeks after I did the round up about the information so far, there's something actually new to add.
After all this talk of Shane Black's excitement and defense of the Death Note film, it seems that he's now been ousted as director. The Tracking Board has reported that Gus van Sant has taken up the reins instead. Gus van Sant is most famous for his movies Good Will Hunting and Milk. Coincidentally, I watched Milk just recently and raved about it with everyone that I know. It certainly promises that the director will find the depths in Death Note. As far as I can currently ascertain, the script produced by Shane Black, Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry is still that on the table. I do hope so, because otherwise Warner might push for their alternative script, where Light was the good guy with a poor upbringing/trauma leading to his dodgy choices. However, there is hope in that he remade Psycho once, and did that practically shot by shot identical to the original black and white one. I've just realised that he was also the director of My Own Private Idaho. Huge grin here. That's one of my favourite films of all time! I'm definitely feeling good about him doing Death Note. According to Gus van Sant's profile on IMDb, there are some trademark things that we can therefore expect for the Death Note movie too:
More as soon as I know it! It's all been a bit quiet on the American movie remake of Death Note front, so I thought I thought I'd do some digging and see what I can uncover. For Death Note fans, it feels like a lifetime has passed since we first heard that Shane Black was set to direct a movie for us. It comes as quite a shock to realize that announcement came only three years ago. Since then, it's all been about waiting for Shane to be free. If you recall, back in 2011, Shane Black had three projects in the pipeline. He opted to direct Iron Man 3 first. That's long since been in on the silver screen, so the fandom held its breath to see what would come next. Drat! It was Doc Savage. The movie is currently in production. As of September 2013, Shane was just piecing together his cast and talking to the media about in what direction he plans to take it. We'd all be forgiven for thinking that the Death Note movie is imminent. If Doc Savage was cast in September, and it's now June 2014, then surely it's close to post-production and out of the way. But no. Since last autumn, Doc Savage seems to have gone off the boil somewhat. The IMDb entry for Doc Savage appears to be stuck on 'script'. No closing credits, no cast listed, not even a date for release even tentatively on the horizon. So if it's all gone away, does that mean its OUR big moment?  Noooo! It doesn't! Because now Shane Black is apparently all gung-ho about a fourth movie, which just came from left-field! As of four days ago, Shane was sniffing around Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, trying to get them to sign up for his film The Nice Guys! This is a movie so hot off the press, that it hasn't even GOT an IMDb entry yet. *sigh* The one thing that we can be absolutely sure about, it's not Death Note! However, our movie does still seem to be a Thing That Will One Day Happen. It still has an entry in the IMDb, which was last updated only two months ago on 23rd April 2014. And that was to update the status to 'script', i.e. exactly the same as Doc Savage! It sounds like Shane Black has finally got one that he likes for the Death Note movie adaptation. This reality has been fraught with problems, since Warner Bros were originally adamant that Kira should be the Good Guy. Fortunately Shane fought our corner, thus proving to the fandom that our story is in safe hands. Beyond this, all Death Note fans have to go on is what Shane told Bleeding Cool last year: Right now I’ve got this thing at Warner Bros. called Death Note that I like a lot. It’s a Japanese Manga that’s very tense and really cool. ~ Shane Black, April 24th 2013 That, coupled with the IMDb update, leads me to believe that the Death Note film is still very much still on. Though at this rate we'll all be hobbling to see it on our zimmer frames, trying to convince our great-grandchildren that it's a great story that they really should come with us to watch.
If there are still cinemas by that point. |
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