Vertigo Entertainment developing U.S. remake of Death Note
If production notes from Shutter and The Strangers are to be believed, U.S. production company Vertigo Entertainment is remaking Death Note, the popular manga turned anime turned live-action movie franchise.
Vertigo, the company behind remakes of Japanese horror films like The Grudge and Dark Water, has hired Vlas and Charley Parlapanides to write the screenplay.
Created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, Death Note centers on a high school student who sets out to rid the world of evil using a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it. He becomes embroiled in a tense game of cat and mouse by an idiosyncratic detective named L.
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• How superheroes ruined summer movies. [EW.com]
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:26 am
that is a terrible idea…
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:46 am
This is a bad idea, hopefully I get proven wrong though.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:02 am
As amusing as it is to see EW criticize Spider-Man, which they’d previously lauded as the quintessential personification of the post-9/11 American… the article’s mean-spirited and dumb.
The writer’s figures are frequently wrong; his contention 1983 didn’t feature any superhero movies is hilarious. I mean, there was a certain Richard Pryor venture.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:04 am
I thought that I had heard something about this already, but, anyway, I really don’t think there’s much good that can come about a Death Note remake.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:12 am
Dead on, Andrew. EW is very frequently “mean-spirited and dumb,” unfortunately. Typical junk from them.
As to a US version of Death Note, once a remake of You’ve Got A Call (that is, One Missed Call) was made, the floodgates were completely open. You’ve Got A Call was the most blatant rip-off of Ringu imaginable, and it got remade — It’s the remake of a ripoff of a movie that has already been remade. Oy.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:47 am
I wish Tim Burton was directing Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace…NOW THAT I’d be excited about.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
The only thing EW’s good for is Doc Jensen’s LOST coverage, and with an 8 month hiatus ahead we’ll only be getting occasional columns there.
I just thought it was comical (no pun intended) that in the author’s bashing of comic book movies he holds up some pretty awful, trashy movies as examples of when the summer movie season “meant something.”
The author even has to admit that Chris Nolan’s talented (no denying it), but then dismisses Dark Knight - sight unseen - because it’s the “sixth Batman movie in 20 years.” So the fact that the Nolan films are a vast improvement (IMO) and are in no way related to the previous four Bat-films means nothing? Are three lousy Star Wars prequels (OK, two lousy prequels and one decent one) and a pointless animated prequel this summer somehow better? What an idiot.
There’s good and bad in all genres. I don’t care much for romantic comedies, but I recognize that they’re not all the same. Perhaps I should write a self-righteous article dismissing that entire genre, painting them all with the same brush? It would be about the same.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I think L could be played well by that kid from The OC, the one with the jet black hair? And Zac Efron as Light?
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
The EW article: The super-hero trend in movies is no different than the sci-fi craze right after Star Wars. I remember there was actually a sci-fi movie with Richard Thomas - John-Boy Walton, who had just left The Waltons to better things. Yes it was lame, but, it was sci-fi.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
A live action Death Note movie made in the States could be good if handled right. Hell Japan did it and it was awesome.
Course knowing the US it’ll have nothing in common with the manga/anime/live action movie. So in other words just wait till mid Sept and get your hands on the live action Japanese made Death Note movie.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
thinking for a remake is gonna be hard, cause there already a fanbase from the original. But hey if ye want my take who should play the tittle role it should go to Gossip Girl EdWestwick. Period.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Oh no…remaking Death Note is a terrible idea…
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Even though I think the Abomination looks like a Sci-Fi Channel made-for-TV Frankenstein and I wish Rick Jones and a gamma explosion were involved in Hulk’s origin, I love how the origin looks like it was made for the 70’s TV show. That show may be dated and have strayed from the comics more than most big screen comic adaptations, I still love it as much as I did as a kid watching the reruns.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:08 am
Please not a remake again
Death Note is one of the best creative manga of that time.