Death Note Hollywood Adaptation Will Be Rated R, Filming Set to Begin This Year

Earlier this month, we reported the cast of the upcoming Death Note live-action as having been revealed by Warner Bros. after months without any news. That will be the Japanese version, but the Tsugumi Ohba's hit manga series will be getting another adaptation, this time from Hollywood. While the news has come off as a bit of a surprise, there's another surprising news that has been dropped recently. The Death Note Hollywood adaptation will be Rated R.

According to producer Roy Lee via Collider, the Death Note cast and crew are set on making the movie an R-rated version of the original material.

Lee made the revelation during DICE 2016:

[We are] currently waiting to officially green-light the movie, but we have a cast in place. I think it's been reported but I don't remember yet, I'd have to check the site, so I don't want to say anything yet. But it's a movie we're planning on making this year.

It's definitely for adults. It is zero chance it will be below an R-rating. [Death Note] will be one of the first manga adaptations that feels very grounded but still has fantastical elements.

To be helmed by Adam Wingard, the Death Note Hollywood adaptation will be the first adaptation of the manga series with English actors. Nat Wolff (Paper Towns) and Margaret Qualley (The Leftovers) have been cast to star in the project.

The manga's live-action film series have already concluded in 2008. Meanwhile, Wingard's version will is reported to start sometime this year.

Death Note follows the story of a young student who will come across a notebook with the supernatural ability to grant its owner the power to kill anyone by writing that person's name on the notebook.

I must admit I'm a bit skeptical of Death Note having a Hollywood version. There have been several foreign films made into Hollywood versions which didn't do quite as good as their foreign contemporaries. I have always seen the Death Note characters being Japanese. For now, it's too early to say anything for sure. Considering the R-rating that the film's direction is taking, it looks like the project is on the right track.