Shane Black‘s modern noir Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer, is easily one of my favorite films of the decade. Released in 2005, here at TFS we’ve been eagerly anticipating what he will do next. He is attached to write and direct a Doc Savage update, as well as a Mel Gibson spy thriller, Cold Warrior, but we haven’t heard much about either project. Deadline now reports a new project to add to the list.
Warner Bros has brought on Black to direct a live-action adaptation of the highly popular Japanese manga series Death Note. Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, who are working on the Doc Savage script for him, will also adapt Tsugumi Ohba‘s series. Check out the synopsis below.
The protagonist, Light, is a bright student who stumbles across a mystical notebook that has the power to kill any person whose name he writes in it. Light decides to launch a secret crusade to rid the streets of criminals. Soon, the student-turned-vigilante finds himself pursued by a famous FBI criminal profiler known only by the alias L.
Between Doc Savage, Cold Warrior, and a fiew other ideas, he isn’t sure what he wants to do next but he is quite interested in Death Note. See his enthusiastic response below.
“It’s my favorite manga, I was just struck by its unique and brilliant sensibility,” Black said. “What we want to do is take it back to that manga, and make it closer to what is so complex and truthful about the spirituality of the story, versus taking the concept and trying to copy it as an American thriller. Jeff Robinov and Greg Silverman liked that.”
I’ve never watched Death Note, but the series has already been adapted into live-action and animated films, as well as an animated TV series, novels and videogames in Japan. The premise sounds like something Black could do wonders with; I only hope he commits to something soon.
Are you a big Kiss Kiss Bang Bang fan? Is Black right for Death Note?