Let me also stress, that I know these have all white people in it, thats the idea, I've seen scores and scores of Death Note Fancasts with Zack Efron to Tom Felton being casted as Light to Justin Long being L. And i hate them, SO i'm doing that kind of casting, IF they were to be done right, with people that could do the parts well and motivate the audience, and an audience that wasn't just the fan base.
First of all, Zack Efron playing Light? NO!!!
NO! and NO!!!!
Now that that's out of my system, who I would choose as who.
As far as directors go, I'd like to say David Finch, director of Se7en, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Zodiac. Good dark mysteries.
or
Guy Ritchie, also good at handling dark tones in his films, and if he did it right, with his mixture of brilliant camera work and indicating a movies feel, this could be a big one. (Notable for works such as the Sherlock Holmes films.
For the live action cast.
I choose Gaspard Ulliel as Light Yagami.
He's got the suave and seemingly well meaning young lad type in his arsenal, as well as whipping out the bat-sh** crazyness that KIRA has, and as we know with Kira, the eye's have it, the emotion, the cunning, the saying all of that without uttering a word, and Gaspard can do that very well.
Now for L, his foil and the worlds greatest and perhaps most eccentric detective, I choose Nicolas Hoult,
since he was a child actor, Nicolas has astounded me with his ablity to act well and even convincingly play an american, and can go from being a loveable nice guy to a really...really....weird person, or a downright creepy son of a gun, and this guy I trust to do the part well. As said before, to be the main people in Deathnote, you need the eyes, convey who you are with the eyes, and when he bugs them out, well...he's got it.
Now for Misa Amane
I choose Kristen Prout, she's a good actress so she won't be out of place, but can also play a bubbly funny ditz likened to Misa, I haven't found the best pictures to prove my point resplendence wise so I implore you to please google her to see what I mean when I say she'd be a good choice.
for Light Yagami's father Soichiro, I choose Josh Brolin. He was actually iffy to me, if you can find another actor better suited your free to suggest.
For his task force for catching Kira, I choose Jackson Rathbone as agent Matsuba
and Jon Berthal from the Walking Dead as Agent Aizawa, you'll know how good his acting is if you've seen the WD show.
Going into Season 2,
For the part of NEAR, the prodigy detective second to L,
I choose Asa Butterfield.
His credentials include the boy in striped pajama's, the show Merlin, and the recent holiday movie HUGO.
for his rival Mello, I choose Jamie Campbell Bower
for the second hand to Kira, District Prosecutor Mikami, I choose Cillian Murphy
I'm pretty sure everyone can imagine him going from the cool cold creepy air that we see him having in Batman Begins and Crane, to the BAT SH** Crazy "DELETE ! DELETE! DELETE!!!!" Kira.
for Kira's supposed partner and future Bride as he becomes the "god of the new world" Takeda
I choose Mary Elizabeth Whinstead.
Now for what I've been saving for last, the Shemigami, the kind of animation i want used on them should be likened to say the creatures in JJ Abrams aliens, that kind of realistic detail to make it extra creepy and reminiscent of the actual actors faces, like Hugo Weavings red skull face.
Now do all that...for Willem Dafoe as Ryuk, even if you didn't doctor the Shimigami's face to resemble his a tad, just hearing that voice come out of that face...doesn't it just pour you a piping hot cup of *SHIVERS*
for the Shimigami attached to Misa, Rem, I choose the voice of Shohreh Aghdashloo, somehow that voice emanating from a Shimigami feels right.
So that's my take, You owe me your Soul.