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Netflix Death Note Trailer. Release August 25th.

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Nickle

Cool Facts: Game of War has been a hit since July 2013
Light Turner looks like the type of kid who watches Death Note ayyyy

It looks a little grim-dark for my taste, and the source material wasn't really like that. Adam Wingard should be a pretty good director, though.
 

B33

Banned
Not getting a good feeling after seeing who the writer is.

His other credits include the new Fantastic Four, the new Exorcist and The Lazarus Effect.

It's a shame these terrible writers keep getting work.

Jeremy Slater is a decent writer.

The Fantastic Four's quality ultimately wasn't on him. That was on Trank, Kinberg, and the studio.

You can't fully gauge a writer's talent and the quality of an upcoming project they wrote only by their IMDb. Justin Marks, for instance, only had Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li on his IMDB before The Jungle Book. The former is terrible but the latter is good.

Marks is a decent writer. What we didn't see was the work outside of what was on his IMDb profile. This is unfortunately because we don't read the scripts turned in by the writer and we don't have access to unmade scripts.

It's hard to write a movie and it's even harder to get it made. In film, the writer works at the behest of the studio, producers, and director. The process can lead to the work being changed for better or worse, most of the time outside the control of the writer. Television is a different dynamic, one that's driven by the writer and showrunner.
 

Cardon

Member
Really can't judge too much based on the footage. Cinematography and lighting stood out for me in a good way though.
 

LotusHD

Banned
GAF never ceases to amaze me. Watches 50 seconds of footage, deems it TRASH.

That's fair, but there is rarely a reason to have faith in an anime/manga adaptation, especially since it's a movie and not a series. I mean, we'll always have hope that something will one day break the trend (I think the Rurouni Kenshin one was good though?), but yea, I won't hold my breath...
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Why do you find the idea of the Death Note silly? As far as supernatural fiction goes, I don't see how it stands out compared to anything else.

The Shinigami use the notebooks to write the names of people they want to die, extending their own lives in the process. Again, why would the Shinigami have Twitter, or any other social media platform? I find that much, much sillier. The lore of the Shinigami realm is actually a pretty interesting aspect of Death Note, and your idea of 'reinventing the story for the modern age' would require changing or removing pretty much all of it.

Like they aren't changing things already?
 

Arkeband

Banned
Pretty sure that's because it was a manga only detail. Show and manga end kind differently.

They had mid-episode slides in the anime in the last episodes that revealed this, here's one.

DN2.jpg
 

B33

Banned
That's fair, but there is rarely a reason to have faith in an anime/manga adaptation, especially since it's a movie and not a series. I mean, we'll always have hope that something will one day break the trend (I think the Rurouni Kenshin one was good though?), but yea, I won't hold my breath...

The anime/manga are bloated and a great deal could be condensed down.

We also don't know how much of the story the film intends on incorporating.
 
Looks like a bunch of people are crying "whitewashing".

It's not like there's really anything very japanese about this. It's no different like when there's an adaptation of a book set in any country other than the USA.

I still remember how a bunch of fans cried when it was revealed that the romanization of his name isn't "Raito", but "Light".

I will give it a try. I more or less liked Netflix movie output (excluding the obvious turds).
 

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
Looks like a bunch of people are crying "whitewashing".

It's not like there's really anything very japanese about this. It's no different like when there's an adaptation of a book set in any country other than the USA.

I still remember how a bunch of fans cried when it was revealed that the romanization of his name isn't "Raito", but "Light".

I will give it a try. I more or less liked Netflix movie output (excluding the obvious turds).
Yeah, that's most of what I'm seeing be retweeted. People are doing some Mister Fantastic levels of reaching to conclude that it's a problem that an NA adaptation of Death Note doesn't have a full Japanese cast.

There are serious issues with whitewashing in movies, but I don't see how this one in particular is a worthy battle to pick.
 

LotusHD

Banned
The anime/manga are bloated and a great deal could be condensed down.

We also don't know how much of the story the film intends on incorporating.

I've been hearing people say this, but regardless, it's still a much better fit as a TV series. Like even if this movie were covering only part of it, and it got sequels and such, my opinion would remain the same tbh

Looks like a bunch of people are crying "whitewashing".

It's not like there's really anything very japanese about this. It's no different like when there's an adaptation of a book set in any country other than the USA.

I still remember how a bunch of fans cried when it was revealed that the romanization of his name isn't "Raito", but "Light".

I will give it a try. I more or less liked Netflix movie output (excluding the obvious turds).

O k
 
Like they aren't changing things already?

There's a difference between changes made for the sake of adapting a material to a different medium/format and changes that are just for the sake of changing it or putting your own twist on something. What you're proposing is the latter. It wouldn't add anything to the story beyond a tidbit of the Death Note physically changing with technology, and it would be a change that in context would look and be totally ridiculous. Seriously. What would it add to the overall piece that the Death Note has become a tablet or laptop that Shinigami use that the notebook doesn't get across? Is that addition worth the silliness that such a change would bring.
 

Jacob

Member
It's the aesthetic. Nothing in Death Note would be out of place in a Hot Topic. Just needed a Panic at the Disco/AFI/etc.. soundtrack and it would've been a perfect mid-2000s emo show.

I'll give you the shinigami, Misa, and to some extent L, but Light's aesthetic is preppy all the way through, and the adult (human) characters all dress like normal professionals. Though based on the teaser it looks like Netflix might be taking their version of Light in a different direction.
 

B33

Banned
I've been hearing people say this, but regardless, it's still a much better fit as a TV series. Like even if this movie were covering only part of it, and it got sequels and such, my opinion would remain the same tbh

Sure, it's a narrative that's serial in its structure because of the native medium of the original story. I won't deny that they're going to have to make significant changes to make it work in one movie or perhaps multiple movies.

A strength of doing it as a film versus a television series is that it wouldn't have the same budget if it were a television series. $45-50 million for one two-hour movie versus that spread across 8-13 episodes at 45-60 minutes a piece would cheapen the look of it.

This isn't to say money is an absolute when it comes to filmmaking, but Death Note inherently requires a certain threshold in VFX work because of the shinigami, deaths, etc., and all of that comes at a price.

This could work as a standalone interpretation of the material that boils the story down to its essentials with a different approach. It won't replace the original work's serial narrative and it inevitably will have to omit things, but perhaps it can be an entertaining retelling of the story even with its faults?
 

Icolin

Banned
In for Willem Dafoe as Ryuk. Wingard's a solid director, but Blair Witch sucked and the rest of the cast is... yeesh.

And this trailer was pretty bad, so there's that too.
 

Kusagari

Member
It's the aesthetic. Nothing in Death Note would be out of place in a Hot Topic. Just needed a Panic at the Disco/AFI/etc.. soundtrack and it would've been a perfect mid-2000s emo show.

The Shinigami, specifically Ryuk, look more like 80s rockstars or metal band imagery, Misa is a gothic Lolita idol and L dresses normally and just has bags under his eyes. Every single other person in the show looks and dresses normally.

What are you even talking about?
 

jett

D-Member
Recently watched the show, and loved it (well, most of it). Not sure how it's going to translate into a two-hour movie. It looks a bit odd, but seems fine from the trailer. I'll say this much, anything is better than the cosplay rejects Japanese productions employ in their live action adaptations.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Sure, it's a narrative that's serial in its structure because of the native medium of the original story. I won't deny that they're going to have to make significant changes to make it work in one movie or perhaps multiple movies.

A strength of doing it as a film versus a television series is that it wouldn't have the same budget if it were a television series. $45-50 million for one two-hour movie versus that spread across 8-13 episodes at 45-60 minutes a piece would cheapen the look of it.

This isn't to say money is an absolute when it comes to filmmaking, but Death Note inherently requires a certain threshold in VFX work because of the shinigami, deaths, etc., and all of that comes at a price.

This could work as a standalone interpretation of the material that boils the story down to its essentials with a different approach. It won't replace the original work's serial narrative and it inevitably will have to omit things, but perhaps it can be an entertaining retelling of the story even with its faults?

Yea I know money is always an unfortunate concern, but my opinion regarding stuff like this is to not bother unless you're gonna do it right. Not that I currently outright have that opinion (as that admittedly would be silly since it isn't out yet, so sure, there's the slim chance I'm wrong) regarding this movie, but I certainly have very low expectations due to how anime/manga adaptations usually go, which is now been further amplified due to the reminder that it is a movie instead of a series.
 
I'm in, just because.

Not sure if it looks good or bad


Also, I always thought this was going to be a series. Now i'm worried how they are going to fit it all in.
 

B33

Banned
Yea I know money is always an unfortunate concern, but my opinion regarding stuff like this is not bother unless you're gonna do it right. Not that I currently outright have that opinion (as that admittedly would be silly since it isn't out yet, so sure, there's the slim chance I'm wrong), but I certainly have very low expectations due to how anime/manga adaptations usually go, which is now been further amplified due to the reminder that it is a movie instead of a series.

Anime/manga adaptations usually aren't great.

Wingard and Slater do like the source material and have good storytelling sensibilities. I'm cautiously optimistic. We'll see what happens.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
There's a difference between changes made for the sake of adapting a material to a different medium/format and changes that are just for the sake of changing it or putting your own twist on something. What you're proposing is the latter. It wouldn't add anything to the story beyond a tidbit of the Death Note physically changing with technology, and it would be a change that in context would look and be totally ridiculous. Seriously. What would it add to the overall piece that the Death Note has become a tablet or laptop that Shinigami use that the notebook doesn't get across? Is that addition worth the silliness that such a change would bring.

It would just update it. That was my original point.
 

SeanC

Member
Looks alright, we'll see.

I had more faith before Blair Witch, major misstep for Wingard but hopefully he'll be back on track as one of the best genre directors working today.
 

Nudull

Banned
Yeah, that's most of what I'm seeing be retweeted. People are doing some Mister Fantastic levels of reaching to conclude that it's a problem that an NA adaptation of Death Note doesn't have a full Japanese cast.

There are serious issues with whitewashing in movies, but I don't see how this one in particular is a worthy battle to pick.

So, the movie keeping "Kira" for no real reason doesn't raise an eyebrow?
 

Arkeband

Banned
So, the movie keeping "Kira" for no real reason doesn't raise an eyebrow?

This is likely how they'll rewrite "Kira" (from googling 'kira meaning'):

Kira is a mostly female given name of ancient origin and multiple etymological derivations. The girl's name Kira is pronounced /ˈkɪərə/ KEER-ə. It might be a female form of the name Kiran, pronounced /ˈkɪərən/ KEER-ən. Kiran is of Hindi and Sanskrit origin, meaning "beam of light".

So Light made up a pseudonym that also means Light.
 

B33

Banned
It would just update it. That was my original point.

It's fine as a notebook. People still use notebooks and it's a nice analog in a modern world of devices. There's an air of mystery to the notebook.

Changing it to an app would be dumb.
 
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