WB's Live-Action DEATH NOTE Movie Lands New Director

A live-action Death Note movie has been in development at Warner Bros. since 2009 and at one time, had Shane Black attached to write and direct the project. However, the latest from The Tracking Board has director Gus Van Sant jumping on board to take the reins. Most of the Western audience probably knows the property best as an anime that ran on Cartoon Network's Toonami and Adult Swim programming block from 2007 - 2010. There have been three live-action Death Note films produced from Japanese film studio Nippon Television - Death Note (June 2006), Death Note: The Last Name (November 2006) and the spinoff film, L: Change the World (February 2008). As recent as April 2013, Shane Black confirmed that he was still attached to helm the project, however, it was also revealed around the same time that there were creative differences between he and WB regarding Light's mission and the use of shinigami. Producing the feature are Dan Lin, Doug Davison, Roy Lee, and Brian Witten through their respective production houses, Vertigo Entertainment, Witten Pictures, and Lin Pictures. The latest draft of the script was completed by Black, Anthony Bagarozzi, and Charles Mondry. Gus Van Sant is best known for Good Will Hunting and Milk.

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects - and he's bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal...or his life? Light tests the boundaries of the Death Note's powers as L and the police begin to close in. Luckily Light's father is the head of the Japanese National Police Agency and leaves vital information about the case lying around the house. With access to his father's files, Light can keep one step ahead of the authorities. But who is the strange man following him, and how can Light guard against enemies whose names he doesn't know?