Death Note (2017 film)

Death Note is an American feature film loosely based on the Death Note manga series. It was released streaming on Netflix on August 25th, 2017.

Netflix developed the film after it was dropped by Warner Brothers in 2016. It was directed by Adam Wingard and stars Nat Wolff, Margaret Qualley, and Keith Stanfield.

Plot
From Netflix:
 * "Intoxicated by the power of a supernatural notebook, a young man begins killing those he deems unworthy of life. Based on the famous Japanese manga."


 * "Light Turner finds a supernatural notebook and uses it to mete out death, attracting the attention of a detective, a demon and a girl in his class."

The genres are listed as: Horror Movies, Supernatural Horror Movies, Teen Screams.

Early development
On January 14, 2007, the Malaysian paper The Star stated that more than ten film companies in the United States had expressed interest in the rights for a Death Note remake. On June 2nd, 2008, Shock Till You Drop reported that the American production company Vertigo Entertainment was developing the remake with Vlas and Charles Parlapanides as screenwriters. On April 30, 2009, Variety reported that Warner Bros., the distributors for the original Japanese live-action films, had acquired the American rights for the remake, with the original screenwriters still attached, along with Vertigo's producers Roy Lee and Doug Davison, in addition to producers Dan Lin and Brian Witten. The release date was tentatively set for the year 2015.

On January 13, 2011, Deadline announced that Shane Black had been hired to direct the film, with the script being written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry. On October 29, 2011, Black explained at a Long Beach Comic Con panel that the film was in jeopardy. Warner Brothers initially wanted Light Yagami to become the good guy while Ryuk would be cut from the plot altogether. Black was largely opposed to this and insisted that a faithful adaptation was the correct way to go. Black went on to say that eventually the original elements of the main character Light had been restored in the script, and added that this is what the film should be about. A year and a half later, on April 24, 2013, Black confirmed in an interview with Bleeding Cool that he was still working on the film. More than another year after that, on July 8, 2014, The Tracking Board reported that Gus Van Sant would direct the film since Shane Black was leaving for another project.

On April 27, 2015, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Adam Wingard would direct the film, with the most recent version of the script written by Jeremy Slater. Jason Hoffs and Masi Oka were announced as producers, in addition to Roy Lee and Dan Lin. On September 29, 2015, Variety reported that Nat Wolff was cast as the student who finds the Death Note. On November 12th, 2015, Deadline reported that Margaret Qualley was in negotiations for the female lead. On February 22, 2016, producer Roy Lee said in an interview with Collider that they were still waiting for the official greenlight, but they plan on making the movie this year. Lee also stated that they had a cast in place and the film would definitely be rated R.

On April 6, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Warner Brothers was looking to release fewer films following the poor reception of Batman v. Superman. Later that day, The Wrap reported that Warner Brothers had dropped Death Note, but the project was now getting picked up by Netflix. Keith Stanfield might also join the cast, although an official offer had not yet been made. On April 8th, The Vancouver Sun reported that filming would begin in Vancouver on June 22. On May 27, VancouverFilm.Net provided a schedule for June production dates; Death Note is scheduled for production from June 30th to August 30th. On June 10, Variety reported that Keith Stanfield was cast for an unknown role. That same day, the Directors Guild of Canada released production dates for the second half of 2016, updating Death Note's production start date to June 29th. On June 13, Bloody Disgusting reported that Jason Eisener was joining the film as second unit director.

Principal photography
Filming was first spotted in Vancouver on June 28th. On June 30th, Netflix confirmed that principal photography had begun and made several announcements. Wolff will be playing Light Turner (based on Light Yagami), Qualley will be Mia Sutton (Misa Amane), and Stanfield will be L. Paul Nakauchi was added to the cast as Watari, and Shea Whigham as James Turner (presumably Soichiro Yagami). The film will be available streaming on Netflix in 2017. On July 6, filming was spotted in downtown Vancouver for what appeared to be L (Keith Stanfield) giving a press conference set in Seattle. On August 2, 2016, Willem Dafoe was announced to voiced the Shinigami Ryuk. Principal photography was extended, and filming wrapped on September 10th.

Post-production
On November 10th, 2016, director Wingard tweeted the "first official image from Death Note" of a film clapperboard, and this was later followed by Wolff and Qualley posting images to their instagrams of Light and Mia apparently having a picnic in a graveyard. On November 17th, producer Masi Oka confirmed in an interview that he had a part in the film. On January 31, 2017, the film had its first private screening. On March 22, the first trailer was released. On July 20th, 2017, at San Diego Comic Con, the Netflix panel featured the Death Note cast and released a clip of Light meeting Ryuk. That evening, the film held a sneak peak screening at the Horton Grand Theatre

Controversy
Following the announcements in 2015 revealing the lead actors, the project saw criticism from professionals and fans alike for whitewashing Japanese characters. Asian-American actor Edward Zo posted a video about his personal attempts to audition for the lead role of Light, which he was unable to do because the role was limited to only white actors. Asian-American actress Arden Cho also criticized the whitewashing on Twitter, quoting actress Viola Davis saying, "you cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there," and added that there was a "LONG way to go for Asians when we can't even book Animes." No one from Warner Brothers responded to the controversy, and neither did Netflix after picking up the production.

The controversy saw a resurgence when the trailer was released on March 22, 2017. "Death Note" trended on Twitter with many individuals commenting on the whitewashing, and many outlets picking up the story.

Reception
Death Note received generally negative reviews with a "rotten" score of 43% on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 41/100.

IGN said the film was "a flawed take on the beloved manga," but gave the film a "Good" rating of 7/10 with the summary: "Netflix's live-action Death Note movie is a very condensed take on the manga with two unsatisfying lead performances."

JoBlo gave the film a 5/10, saying: "It doesn't make a whole lot of sense or flow very naturally, but it gets points for the effort."

GameSpot gave a mixed review, saying: "Death Note probably won't become one of Netflix's biggest hits, but for what it pays tribute to and what it accomplishes, it's not hard to recommend."

Trivia

 * The announcement that the film would be rated R came out just eight days after Deadpool's record-breaking release. Deadpool was the first major comic book film adaptation to be rated R, while similar adaptations have stayed with lower ratings to keep them accessible to underage fans. The major success of an R-rated comic book movie might have provided the Death Note production team leverage to go with an R rating.