Death Note will be available to stream on Netflix beginning August 25, 2017, but fans of the anime/manga got more insight on what to expect from the movie during a panel on the first day of San Diego Comic-Con 2017.
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Tsugumi Ohba may have brought the series to life back in December 2003, but Netflix is gearing up to make the supernatural story the next big thing in the west. Over a decade after the Death Note anime ended, the global streaming site will release its live-action adaptation of the Japanese franchise.
* 3:12 pm PT * Announcements being made about no streaming of footage… very excited to see Death Note as well as Bright (which is likely to be shown as well).
*3:23 pm* Iconic apple being used as a :60 countdown to open the panel… this is the FIRST time that Netflix has been featured in Hall H.
It started with an opening remark from host, Eddie Ibrahim — Comic-Con Director of Programming — and then went straight into detail.
It will open with footage of Death Note and be moderated by Terry Crews.
Footage opens in rainy Seattle, with an argument without volume of the discussion and voiceover from Light.
A fight ensues where the Death Note is revealed.
The body of 400 victims showing a room of what looks like a nightclub, and Justice of Kira is on the wall.
The “we can change the world/ we can change everything” is voiced over… and more building are collapsing.
There is a scene with a ferris wheel being blown off its bolts and tumbling into the ocean. And more voice over from
One the panel is Margaret Qualley, Keith Stanfield, Nat Wolff, among others.
* 3:30 pm *
Adam Wingard — “The inspiration behind this was obvious to take some of the previously existing material and take some of the over-to-ideas, like giving someone the ability to literally kill anyone, and translate it into something unique and different.”
Nat: “To prepare the for the film, I actually sat down to make my own death note and I didnt think I would be able to come up with anything, but, honestly, the names started flowing from my pen. It is a pretty dangerous idea, when you really think about it.”
Willem DeFoe, voice over, telling them to show ANOTHER scene from the movie.
SCENE:
First scene is a list of rules for the Death Note… a loud noise scares Light and a glass shatters from the cabinet and marbles spill on the floor revealing Ryuk, who pushes Light over and then attacks him in the classroom.
Ryuk demonstrates his power by knocking everythign over and destroying the room, launching an apple core over an overthrown desk and saying, “shall we begin.”
L thinks he is dreaming and slaps himself, saying “You’re asleep, dreaming of an eight-foot tall mother f^cker.”
Ryuk then welcomes Light to open a window where he sees a young woman getting bullied, then Ryuk tells him to put the name down and “see what happens…” …. “I know you want to…” … “go on, help her.”
Light says, “I dont have a pen… ” Ryuk (clicks open one) … Light, “Good thing you do.”
He writes down the name of the person, and HOW to have them killed (decapitation).
END OF SCENE
QUESTION & ANSWER
“How Scary Is Death Note” :
Nat, “Pretty scary. Youll want to look away.”
Adam, “Some people thing we are just turning this into a horror film. Ryuk is like that, always in the shadows, but the movie is not full-on scary, but we play with the light and dark between them.
“Since this movie is sort of like a horror, who is your super villian… who scares you?”
Adam, “The President of the United States.”
Lakeith, “I really like the Joker — not the one from the latest rendition, though — the Heath Ledger version.”
“Why did you decide to take on this when other live-action animes havent done so well?”
Adam, “That is actually exactly why. There have been other adaptation of Death Note but we can do something unique with something that could make a really good adaption. There are some other manga or anime that havent been done, but this one had the best story to tell.”
Masi, “We wanted to create a movie that our sensias would be proud of and when Tsugumi Ohba screened it in Japan and said he loved it, it made it all worth it. It really brought tears to my eyes.”
Death Note screening will be tonight at 10pm.
BRIGHT
Bright footage… was about six second long, showed next to NOTHING. Was some sirens flashing and then, taken down.
David Ayers welcomed on stage.
*3:47pm *
Ayers, “This is Netflix house. We here representing Netflix.”
Eric Newman and Brian Unkeless now coming out on the stage.
Noomi Raapace, Edgar Ramirez, Lucy Fry, Joel Edgerton, and Will Smith comes out.
Regular applause for everyone…. explosion for Will Smith.
*350 pm SCENE*
All black…
Aerial view, pulsating music… “Why is there a fairy in the bird feeder again.”
Will Smith goes out and tries to attack a fairy….
Lots of races being shown outside and now inside the precinct. Smith partner, obviously of another “race” …
Dead body with Smith in pursuit and they find a tree that can grant wishes, but produces another fairy — that is more humaoid sized.
A magic wand is now involved and very powerful, Smith has switched from gun to sword, back to gun.
Edgerton character, “We might be in the prophecy.”
Smith, “We arent in a prophecy, we are in a stolen Carolla.”
* 353 pm *
Ayers, “This movie is about LA, but a fucked up LA, but our world is fucked up. This isnt some bullshit, produced PG-13 shit movie, I was able to do my thing. This is a new kind of thing we are doing. It can comment on social issues, but using fairies and other things. This is some real shit.”
Will Smith, “This is hard, real, grime like Training Day, but mixed with Lord of the Rings.
“My partner is an orc, so it was unique to be an LA Police officer, and black, and have someone else to be racist against. As a black man you rarely get to be on that side of the prejudice.”
Edgerton, “I love Lord of the Rings and so it was fun to play a character that just doesnt really get the humor of anything. A guy who just wants to be liked but looks like a monster. Driving through downtown LA looking how I look in the movie without lockdown streets, the power of Will Smith is that literally no one noticed I was a monster. They kept yelling, ‘yo Will,’ but didnt care he was being driven around by a guy that looked like I looked.”
*3:59 *
Ayers, “The Elves run the world. The are nice dressed and get the dealer samples. The humans are the middle class, and the orcs are the workers. They do all the shit jobs.”
BRIGHT QUESTION & ANSWER
*3:59 *
“How do you go about creating a new world like this?”
Eric Newman, “We spent a lot of money. I watch those clips and it makes me sweat. It was really cool to work with a great script and a great concept. David is really great at finding some dingy and dirty alleys with cockroaches and rats. You just cant shoot Los Angeles in Atlanta.”
Ayer, “It is a credit to Netflix and how they do buisness. They ask where and how to shoot it and they let me do it. It almost felt like a super, high-budget independent film. That may not land with you guys, but you have to understand that other side. It is the opposite for many filmakers. Netflix is going to pull a lot of talented people to their side.
*4:04 Ayers introduces a scene *
Elves are stronger the humans and when they are pissed at you look out.
Three people in a convienance store — Smith, his partner, another — when a black Mustang drives through the window when two female elves get out, one with an uzi the other a shotgun, shooting at Will Smith. A third elf driving, keeps backing toward Smith.
The trio shoot up the store, and driv over almost the entire product shelves while Smith is stuck using a revolver (for some reason) … he is lft reloading while the drive uses another automatic weapson to shoot at him.
His orc partner helps rescue him while the third party is kept, doused in gasoline and then lit on fire…
* 407 pm*
“Usually, David, you work in a grounded, real-world setting, was it more difficult to use the fantasy landscape?
Ayers, “The characters take themselves seriously, they have work, bills, marriage, but there are also social constructs with a limited upward mobility and this is a world of walls and segregation and we are living it right now.
Will Smith — “This is Lucy Fry’s first ComicCon, she is terrified, so Hall H, give her some love and support.”
“Question for Will, you have done a few sci-fi and fantasy movies, what about this genre brings you back?”
Smith, “I was probably 10 years old when Star Wars came out and I have never been smashed like that in a movie theater. My mind was boggled, for this generation you have seen magnificent things in movies. When I saw Star Wars that was all new, I was completely blown away and so my whole life I have chased that and tried to give that feeling to fans. I had never matched that level of ecstasy. Now, I had sex a few years later, but that probably didn’t match Star Wars.”
*412 pm*
“What is the differnce between shooting for Netflix or a Paramount film?”
Will, “There is real no difference in shooting except that Netflix will jsut give you the money and let you go make the movie you want to make. So that may end soon, but it was fantastic. The differnce is also that it will be different in the experience of seeing it in the theatre versus at your home. It is also a little different in the first days when theatre came to film, so it is like that.
“It is like Fresh Prince — which most of you werent born when it was on — and it was cool and people would see me on the street… and then Independence Day came out. It was right when that came out, it was the next day was the first day that someone called me Mr. Smith instead of ‘Hey Will’ … the difference is just in perspective but that will shift.”
“Edgar what was it like working with David?”
Ramirez, “It was really great. Many people dont know that he is completly fluent in Spanish — and clearly I am not from Connecticut — and so he directed me the entire movie in Spanish and so it made me comfortable and then I got to relay the information to the crew and then we go.”
“What does Bright mean?”
Fry, “Well a bright is someone who is trained in magic. You have to be trained to hold a wand and use a wand, if a human touched a wand they would explode. So I cant reveal too much because my character has a whole lot of secrets but I am like a little baby bright that has to learn what to do.”
*4:20 pm Will introducing another scene*
Smith, “I want to see the trailer one more time… it was close on me, so I am coming out there with you to watch it.”
It is just the trailer again…
There is definitely more “race” undertones to be mindful of after sitting through the panel where Ayers said they made decisions to include a social commentary.
The action is pretty serious. Smith is up to his usual MIB-type acting style, with quips and humor.
MORE DEATH NOTE
What if you had the power to decide who lives and who dies? We suggest you obey the rules. Based on the famous Japanese manga written by Tsugumi Ohbaand Takeshi Obata, Death Note follows a high school student who comes across a supernatural notebook, realizing it holds within it a great power; if the owner inscribes someone’s name into it while picturing their face, he or she will die. Intoxicated with his new godlike abilities, the young man begins to kill those he deems unworthy of life.
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Image courtesy of Netflix
