Adam Wingard’s Death Note adaptation (which is being housed at Netflix) has added actor Willem Dafoe (Spiderman 2002) to the casting roster. According to Mashable, the actor will provide his vocal talents as the voice of The Shinigami.
As we previously reported, cameras have finally begun rolling on the long-awaited American adaptation of the horror manga, which will also star Nat Wolff (Paper Towns), Margaret Qualley (The Nice Guys), Keith Stanfield (Straight Outta Compton), Paul Nakauchi (Alpha and Omega), and Shea Whigham (Agent Carter).
We know thus far that the project is targeting a hard R-rating. Producer Roy Lee spoke with Collider about the long-discussed adaptation and confirmed that the picture will absolutely be rated R.
The film was originally slated to shoot last Spring but has been plagued by a series of starts and stops. Warner Brothers had the rights to adapt the property for more than five years. When the studio failed to act within that time frame, the rights reverted and Netflix swooped in to acquire them.
Adam Wingard will direct the US feature film adaptation of Death Note. It has already been developed for the big screen in Japan and that adaptation was followed by a sequel.
Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Jason Hoffs and Masi Oka will be producing the adaptation. Doug Davison and Brian Witten are executive producing. Jeremy Slater penned the most recent draft of the script. Shane Black (The Predator) was attached to direct prior to Adam Wingard coming on board.
No word on a specific release date at this point but the streaming service has indicated that the picture will debut some time in 2017.
Plot outline from Netflix: “Based on the famous Japanese manga written by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, Death Note follows a high school student who comes across a supernatural notebook, realizing it holds within it a great power; if the owner inscribes someone’s name into it while picturing their face, he or she will die. Intoxicated with his new godlike abilities, the young man begins to kill those he deems unworthy of life.”
Image Credit: Today
