Look, we’re not here to litigate the quality of the Death Note flick. That’s for the good folks at Rotten Tomatoes!
Earlier today, entertainment news source The Hollywood Reporter published an interview with live-action Death Note director Adam Wingard. In the piece, Wingard revealed that Netflix is open to producing sequels to the film.
Specifically, the fate of any potential sequels hinge on the performance of the first film, which hit the service today. Wingard explained that he “…pitched it as at least a two-film series, maybe three,” but went on to note that “sequels are never guaranteed. They have to be earned.”
Ultimately, Wingard intended for Death Note to be a series of two or three films. In the interview, Wingard revealed that he pitched Death Note as a two to three film franchise:
At the end of the day, there are a lot of places to explore where to take Light. And ultimately the series is sort of about almost his downfall as a character. This is sort of the beginning of it or the origin of it. There are definitely lots of places to go, and we know generally where we would take it. Hopefully people will watch it and Netflix will order a sequel. They definitely are ready to. They just need people to watch it.
The project, which was previously in development at Warner Brothers, was helmed by Adam Wingard (The Guest), with Jeremy Slater (Fantastic Four) penning the script. Roy Lee (Vertigo Entertainment), Dan Lin (Lin Pictures), Jason Hoffs (Viz Productions), and Masi Oka (Heroes, Hawaii Five-0) are attached to the project as producers. Doug Davidson (The Grudge) and Brian Witten (Final Destination) served as executive producers.
Netflix describes the film as:
What if you had the power to decide who lives and who dies?
We suggest you obey the rules. 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.
Viz Media currently holds the domestic rights to the Death Note anime, as well as Takeshi Obata’s original manga series. The company released the anime series on Blu-Ray in March 2016. The title is available for streaming on Netflix and Hulu.
