Filming for Netflix’s live-action adaption of Death Note, based on the well known Japanese manga from Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, is now under way and is being directed by Adam Wingard (You’re Next). Today we received news that film star Willem Defoe (The Great Wall, John Wick, Boondock Saints) has joined the film’s cast. Defoe will lend his voice to the character Ryuk the Shinigami (God of Death). Defoe will co-star alongside Nat Wolff, Margaret Qualley, Keith Stanfield, Shea Whigham and Paul Nakauchi.
The film, centers on a high school teen who finds a supernatural notebook that holds great power, anyone whose name is written in it will die. The young man begins to kill those he believes is unworthy of life.
Death Note is produced by Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Masi Oka and Jason Hoffs. Johnathan Eirich, Mirir Yoon Branden Ferguson, and John Powers Middleton are serving as executive producers. We can expect to see the new adaption of Death Note premiere on Netflix’s streaming service sometime next year.
This is not the first time the comic has been adapted into a feature film. There is a 2006 Japanese film directed by Tetsuro Araki and Tomohiko Ito. There was also an animated series that aired from 2006 to 2007.
