First and foremost, I must apologize profusely for my absence this week. I will leave it as such- pinched nerves are just about the most horrible experience I have ever had in my life. Needless to say, typing has not been a priority.
In any case, this big news is way on my radar. WB wants to do a Death Note American live action release- this could be a real boon (or bane) to the US anime fanbase. I consider this slightly different from my previous worries (see: Cowboy bebop, Full Metal Panic) in that 1) the story has easy & obvious US appeal and is largely do-able without being super cheesy and 2) the Japanese live action films are as cheesy as it comes so it’s not disgracing something new that I love. Death Note is such a great story; I would really love to see more kids into it (any excuse to talk about it at work!).
That’s all for now- my fingers are not yet fully functional and this is a total drag. On another note, I will be away starting next Wednesday so no posts for next week!
-OL
D said,
May 8, 2009 @ 1:52 am
After having seen both DeathNote movies, and looking forward to the 3rd one, I have to wonder if an American series remake could hack it?
I am skeptical
LG said,
May 8, 2009 @ 6:24 pm
I wonder how they’ll handle the international aspects. Will they make Light an American? Will all the American agents stay American agents, or will they become Japanese?
I wonder about the casting, too. A while back I saw an AMV that played off the striking resemblance between Light’s hair and Zack Efron’s hair (not sure what his hair looks like now, but here’s the URL for a post noting the resemblance: http://giapet.net/2007/09/09/zac-efron-is-kira-further-evidence/). I can see Zack Efron getting cast as Light. I’m assuming he could pull off “nice, perfect student” but could he pull off “killer with a god complex”?
Then again, they might cast someone entirely different, and none of what I’ve just said matters any.
So, how many manga/anime series are we looking at now? At least 5 or 6 being made into live action movies in the US? I guess this is Hollywood’s way of adding variety to the line-up of superhero movies. I do hope that, even if the movies make anime and manga fans cringe, they’ll at least convince a few people who might not have otherwise touched anime and manga to give it a try.