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Netflix Death Note Trailer. Release August 25th.

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Kyonashi

Member
That would actually be goddamn clever.

This would actually really clever and fit our society right now.
You could make the Death Note easy into a analogy of the Internet. It's a way to destroy somebody's life, through the safety from your home and disconnection from the task itself. All you need to know, is the person's real name and face in both cases. Even people following you and praise your actions exists.
Ryuk should be a reminder to the audience, that the Death Note itself isn't evil and a necessary object for his kind. But bad people can use it for evil actions. So to make clear, that it isn't the Notes (internet) fault, it's Lights ego and personality.

I would love this change and playing up the teenage angst, which only reveals, what a terrible person Light truly is. Death Note at the end is about, how power shows the true self of a person.

Particularly with a black actor as L (Keith Stanfield, who, after seeing him in Atlanta, I'm really excited for). I deeply, deeply, wish they're going for this angle. But chances are slim, I guess.
 

Renpatsu

Member
Particularly with a black actor as L (who, after seeing him in Atlanta, I'm really excited for). I deeply, deeply, wish they're going for this angle. But chances are slim, I guess.
Even if they don't go in on this hypothetical angle for the film it doesn't make casting a black actor in the role of L any less potent a creative decision given the obvious implications introduced into the subtext via the contrast between Light and L. If they are at least concious of that from casting alone it might be a sign of the thought being given to this adaptation.
 

Illucio

Banned
Are the rumors true about a black guy being cast as L true? If so these peoples comments are disgusting towards it.

link
Its true.

My only gripe with it is that they made all his outfits black instead of L's traditional white. I feel like the show is doubling down on black vs. White in its symbolism. But with white now representing Light and black representing L. We get it he's a black guy now, but the whole thing about the two is that they represented yin and yang. Not black and white.
 

Kyonashi

Member
Even if they don't go in on this hypothetical angle for the film it doesn't make casting a black actor in the role of L any less potent a creative decision given the obvious implications introduced into the subtext via the contrast between Light and L. If they are at least concious of that from casting alone it might be a sign of the thought being given to this adaptation.

That's what's kindling my hope right now. As well as being made outside of the stale Hollywood system.
 

Arkeband

Banned
What's with that Ferris Wheel bullshit?

Light is falling and grabbing a girl, probably Misa or whatever they've renamed her to. They're being illuminated by light source above, probably a helicopter. So if he's being chased by the authorities, as it showed in the scene preceding this, this must be a pivotal scene.

In the first Japanese live action film, Light
kills his girlfriend
by controlling another person with the Death Note, this replaced the original bus Shinigami test and Naomi Misora/Raye Penber arcs.

So maybe in this one, they take it one step further and he creates an even more ridiculous scheme where he causes the Ferris wheel to collapse (maybe he controls people to tamper with it) in order to kill Misa, being the only other Death Note holder he knows, in order to frame her as Kira. This would allow it to end showing how depraved Light can be and setting up a very different sequel where everyone is convinced of Light's innocence except for L.

That's my analysis.
 

Realeza

Banned
Looks good. I find it interesting that it takes place in Seattle. It would have made more thematic sense if it was a bigger city, like N.Y.
 
Looks good. I find it interesting that it takes place in Seattle. It would have made more thematic sense if it was a bigger city, like N.Y.

Probably would've required a much bigger budget, but, yeah, I've always envisioned an American adaptation taking place in NY with L confronting Kira for the first time on all the screens in Times Square .
 
Light is falling and grabbing a girl, probably Misa or whatever they've renamed her to. They're being illuminated by light source above, probably a helicopter. So if he's being chased by the authorities, as it showed in the scene preceding this, this must be a pivotal scene.

In the first Japanese live action film, Light
kills his girlfriend
by controlling another person with the Death Note, this replaced the original bus Shinigami test and Naomi Misora/Raye Penber arcs.

So maybe in this one, they take it one step further and he creates an even more ridiculous scheme where he causes the Ferris wheel to collapse (maybe he controls people to tamper with it) in order to kill Misa, being the only other Death Note holder he knows, in order to frame her as Kira. This would allow it to end showing how depraved Light can be and setting up a very different sequel where everyone is convinced of Light's innocence except for L.

That's my analysis.

Japanese Light would have let her fall
assuming Rem didn't threaten him into trying to save her
 

Hydrus

Member
I think it looks solid. I don't care what anyone says. As long as it captures the vibe of the anime and while being its own thing, I'm cool with that.
 

Gnome

Member
Looked good to me. I see no reason to do a super faithful adaptation when we already have the manga, anime, and Japanese live action. Those things aren't going anywhere for the people that just want that story again with the exact same characters.
 

benzy

Member
Lakeith might actually make for an interesting take on L.

Light Turner reminds me too much of SpiderMan 3 Pete though.
 
I trust the execs at Netflix more than I do most major studios, tbh

My point was this production was already setup at a Hollywood studio (Warner Brothers) first, with most things already set like script, director, and most of the actors cast, all Netflix did was swoop in and buy it off Warner Brothers when they had cold feet in going further and simply allowed them to make their film as it was going to be made instead of the theaters but for their digital distributions site.

Really no different from how other productions of films have been.

Most of Netflix "Original" Films are films that are usually independently made, and Netflix just goes to film festivals and bids the highest to get them and brands their name afterwards on them.
 
Also I didn't see anybody post this picture that Netflix released of the film.

death-note-new-l-and-light-image.jpg
 
I wonder why he's still calling his alternate persona 'Kira'

This is something I think was lost in adapting this to the way they're going now. It's funny to keep aspects of Japanese stuff in it without taking context into consideration. It's like they don't know kira means killer in Japanese, so when you see the name in the trailer, most are going to default to "hah Kira what a girl name." It's the same problem that GitS faces, where they want a clear Asian setting and yet they're making deliberate choices that go against what you'd expect of the setting. It's incredibly jarring in both cases.

I think the issue is that writers/creative teams don't realize that If they want to adapt to a different setting or time, nothing is really stopping them from doing so. Netflix's Death note could've used a different name to symbolize Light's persona.

edgy hacker? My dude he's just hiding all of his features, is that not incredibly obvious?

I can understand where the person is coming from. There's a certain hacker show that has a hooded character dressed in all-black (Mr. Robot).
 

dpunk3

Member
This looks good.

Semi-related, but I shared this on Facebook and one of my really feminist friends commented "Does it not bother you that none of the actors appeared to be Asian?"

I mean, this takes place in another country doesn't it?
 

cj_iwakura

Member
This looks good.

Semi-related, but I shared this on Facebook and one of my really feminist friends commented "Does it not bother you that none of the actors appeared to be Asian?"

I mean, this takes place in another country doesn't it?

I'm going to quote a fascinating outlook on the situation from another MB I frequent:

So I'm seeing people talk about the whitewashing of Light in Netflix's Death Note in light (pun not intended) of an Asian actor named Edward Zo coming out as saying he was turned down to audition for the role of Light because they "weren't looking for an Asian actor".

However, the interesting thing is that a black actor, Lakeith Stanfield, has been cast as L (Lakeith recently posted a tweet reading "currently blackwashin' shit"). This means that an Americanization of Death Note, a franchise whose premise is that a person uses a supernatural item to kill people in the pursuit of what he falsely believes is justice to make up for the criminal justice system not being hard enough on crime, will feature a villainous white protagonist and a heroic black antagonist fighting over whether the protagonist's idea of justice truly is just.

This may be too much to hope for, but if the Americanization of Death Note ends up being essentially about the disproportionate impact of the criminal justice system and the "Tough on Crime" attitude on minority communities this will change my opinion of this adaptation from "unnecessary" to "shockingly inspired".
 

JediLink

Member
I get that this is an Amercianisation but this Light just looks wrong to me. Should've at least given him brown hair.
 

sphagnum

Banned
This looks good.

Semi-related, but I shared this on Facebook and one of my really feminist friends commented "Does it not bother you that none of the actors appeared to be Asian?"

I mean, this takes place in another country doesn't it?

It does, but it's another example of whitewashing a foreign property. I think it's more acceptable when they go all the way like this compared to GitS where they seem to be trying to have their cake and eat it too, but it still would've been nice to have an Asian guy.
 
It does, but it's another example of whitewashing a foreign property. I think it's more acceptable when they go all the way like this compared to GitS where they seem to be trying to have their cake and eat it too, but it still would've been nice to have an Asian guy.

It's not whitewashing. Quit using that term for licenses legally bought and adapted for that regions audience.
 

El Topo

Member
I mean, this takes place in another country doesn't it?

At the end of the day, you have a role that was originally Asian and is no more. Strictly speaking, changing the setting and identities of the characters is not whitewashing* though.
*Especially if one of the characters is black.
 
At the end of the day, you have a role that was originally Asian.

I think some of ya'll are conflating the lack of Asian American representation in American media with American Adaptations of foreign properties.

Also the original role was Japanese, not some homogeneous Asian, and it's important to point that out because if you want to go that route, then Japanese Americans make less than 1 percent of the American population.
 

El Topo

Member
I think some of ya'll are conflating the lack of Asian American representation in American media with American Adaptations of foreign properties.

Not really. It is simply a missed opportunity, not a necessity.

Also the original role was Japanese, not some homogeneous Asian, and it's important to point that out because if you want to go that route, then Japanese Americans make less than 1 percent of the American population.

I am arguing in favor of Asian American representation in general, not of an enforced 1:1 casting (regarding ethnicity).
 
Not really. It is simply a missed opportunity, not a necessity.



I am arguing in favor of Asian American representation in general, not of an enforced 1:1 casting (regarding ethnicity).

I am in favor of Asian American representation, but that doesn't mean Asian Americans are automatically entitled to be cast in popular Japanese Anime/Manga licenses bought by Hollywood studios to be adapted for a worldwide audience.

The harsh reality is a Hollywood studio/production buying the rights to a Japanese property only for them to adapt it to America and cast Asian people kinda defeats the whole purpose of them buying the rights in the first place.
 

dpunk3

Member
It was my understanding that these were NOT the original characters (Light, L, Near, etc), but rather new ones and this was basically starting fresh. Is this not the case?
 
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