DEATH NOTE
It’s a new Netflix chiller from the helmer of last year’s Blair Witch sequel.
“It felt like we had a responsibility to do something completely new,” says Adam Wingard. The Blair Witch director’s in town to talk Death Note, Netflix’s feature-length adaptation of Tsugumi Ohba’s phenomenally successful manga. It’s already been adapted as a pair of Japanese movies, but relocating to America necessitated some major departures. “When you take something like Death Note, which is as Japanese as you get, and you move it to a different country it changes everything; the aesthetic, the approach.”
For anyone who missed it, Death Note is the story of Light Turner (Nat Wolff ), a student who comes into possession of the titular notebook. This creepy lookin’ tome has one purpose – whoever’s name is written on its pages dies. Light uses his newfound power to remotely murder criminals who escape justice, a noble endeavour that becomes increasingly murky thanks to the questionable morals of his girlfriend Mia (Margaret Qualley), detective L’s (Keith Stanfield) investigation and demonic death god Ryuk (voiced by Willem Dafoe), who serves as Light’s sinister Jiminy Cricket.
The biggest challenge came in casting a character as iconic as Ryuk. “He has that glam rock sensibility to him,” Wingard explains. “So initially I thought, ‘You know who would be really cool? If we went a really weird route and cast David Bowie as Ryuk,’ and then David Bowie died right before we were about to start making offers. The next person on my list was Prince. After that I said, ‘Okay, we’re just going to look at actors. We’re killing the best rock stars of all time!’” Willem Dafoe was Wingard’s only choice.
Also a challenge to cast: L, whose socially awkward ways have made it across the pond intact. “There was always a question of how weird do we make him?” Wingard laughs. “It wasn’t until I saw Keith Stanfield read for it that it really clicked, because he came in and did it completely different than everybody else. And that’s what I was looking for. I was looking for somebody that was going to really blow me away with something weird.” Wingard may be best known for indie gems The Guest and You’re Next, but he’s stepping up to the major leagues with his next movie – 2020’s MonsterVerse crossover Godzilla Vs Kong. But working outside the studio system on Death Note meant he enjoyed a freedom rarely afforded to filmmakers dealing with multi-million dollar budgets. “That’s one of the coolest things about it,” Wingard smiles. “You’re making a movie with a blockbuster price tag but with none of the problems that usually come with that. It’s just a different kind of process altogether. Creatively, it was very open.”
Death Note streams on Netflix from 25 August.