Hot off the press from Tokyograph:

American movie studio Vertigo Entertainment is apparently working on a remake of the popular franchise “Death Note,” which has been turned into three live-action films in Japan. The news was quietly revealed in production notes for the horror films “Shutter” and “The Strangers.”

According to the notes, Vlas and Charles Parlapanides have been tapped to pen the screenplay. They are currently writing for the upcoming TV series “Undercover” on The CW.

No other details have been revealed at this point.

Rumour has it that Zac Efron may be casted to be Light Yagami/Kira.

After watching the Youtube video I have to somewhat agree that he looks like Light. But… that’s about the only thing he’s got going for him in getting this role. I still stand by my comment about him having too much of a musical image as far as acting goes. Also, wouldn’t playing a role like this hurt his image? I don’t think too many parents will be happy when they find out that Disney HSM’s Troy is playing a morally twisted wannabe dictator.

 

So, since I just typed a looong reply to the d-addicts thread about this, I’ll just paste it here, =D. Here’s my take on this:

Seriously, when I first saw this thread I was like “WTF??!” I thought this was a joke. I mean, Death Note is AWESOME, but it also has a really niche audience (i.e: only fans of the anime + manga). And it isn’t exactly the typical Japanese horror film that the U.S usually imports either. It’s really low on action/gore etc. which is usually what appeals most to audiences on this side of the world. I know this sounds horribly stereotypical, but I don’t know many Americans who watch movies to listen to some smartass teenager slowly explain his mastermind plans for conquering the world while writing in a notebook.

So, based on those assumptions I would say that this movie adaptation is going to be adjusted to the “more action/killing/blood/gore” and less “slowly dissecting intricate strategies”. And I truly, truly hope that I’m not right- because if I am, I will be majorly pissed.

There’s also the issue of names. Sure, “Light” sounds okay in the Japanese version, and for most weathered Anime fans that are used to the Japanese coming up with random English words as names, its pretty acceptable. But I’m pretty sure this will have to be changed for American audiences. Not that I consider this a problem- Light, even in the original version, is supposed to appear as a studious, well-behaved, bright young man, so giving him an ordinary name will just help perfect the illusion. Actually, I’m sure everyone’s names (save for L’s, perhaps) will be changed so the story appears to be occuring in “America”, because God forbid anything exciting be taking place in any other place in the world lest we find it hard to relate to them and thus fail to take an interest in the movie. (the same principle applies for almost every movie around the world of course, so I can’t really complain).

I wonder what “Kira” will be transliterated to though- “Killer” might work, although I think that name somewhat lacks the impact of “Kira” (that’s just me of course- I realize the two are practically one and the same).

There is of course, bright sides to this. If this movie proves successful (whether it is a butchered action/gore version or, preferably, a version that is relatively faithful to the original Japanese plot) it may be able to expose Death Note media in other mediums (anime, manga, novel etc.) and ultimately even anime to mainstream audiences. Of course, that’s all quite a stretch, but its possible.

I don’t really know what to expect from the adaptation. Hopefully I’ll go see it when its released, just for the heck of it, but if I do I won’t be setting any expectations. This could be great, or this could be horrible. Or it could be somewhat in between. Now that I’ve gotten past the “WTF?!” factor of this news, I realize that this is just another Japanese imported movie that’s going to be adapted for American audiences. Nothing to be that excited about, I suppose.

Okay, maybe I haven’t gotten past the WTF factor yet, because apparently there’s more to come? Zac Efron=/=Light! If he is cast and he can actually pull the role off, I will respect him 1000x more then I do now. But considering his current reputation for starring in Disney musicals… er… well, let’s hope for the best. It could be worse, I suppose (it could, but I just can’t think of how.)

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Sorry if this post was completely incoherent, but seriously, I was distracted by the WTF~!

-Lycoris