The ‘Death Note’ Trailer is Here, and It Could Be a Killer

Fans of the manga/anime/feature film series Death Note are going to be looking closely at their screens today. The first trailer for the American adaptation, directed by Adam Wingard (You’re Next), premiered this morning, and it’s a total tease.

Death Note began as a manga series in 2003, and tells the story of Light Yagami, a teenager who discovers a notebook that has to power to kill anybody whose name is written inside of it. Light Yagami decides to use this “Death Note” for his own, morally questionable purposes, as the world responds to an unthinkable new threat and a mysterious private detective named “L” sets about uncovering this all-powerful new murderer. Meanwhile, the original owner of the Death Note – a demon named Ryuk – is lounging about in Light’s bedroom, making himself an infernal nuisance.

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This new Death Note adaptation is the latest in a not-very-long line of American live-action anime remakes, which include big screen disappointments like Dragonball: Evolution and Astroboy as well as two low-budget films based on The Guyver. But if next week’s Ghost in the Shell adaptation takes off, and if Death Note succeeds on Netflix, it’s possible that we might be seeing the birth of a new Hollywood trend, and that long-gestating adaptations of AkiraBleach and many other manga/anime properties will see the light of day.

But that all depends on Ghost in the Shell and, more to the point, Death Note. The new trailer for the film, which debuts on Netflix in August 25, is available below, and only hints at the imaginative craziness (and the obsessive-compulsive fixation on fine print) that will hopefully make the transition to the American version.

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Top Photo: Netflix

William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.

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