‘Death Note’ Goes Live-Action In Netflix’s New Trailer

If you were a teenager, and you found a book claiming any name you wrote in it would die, how seriously would you take it? Not very, right? Well, horror stories being what they are, Death Note is all about making that particular mistake. And, of course, things go wrong from there in Netflix‘s movie adapting the series.

Death Note, if you’re not familiar, is a manga and anime series following Light, a genius high schooler who, given the power of life and death, more or less decides he’s a god and starts bumping off every criminal he can find with the evil notebook in question. Things quickly get out of hand, as you might expect with a teenager going on a killing spree, eventually dragging in Interpol, famous models, and more.

This looks to be a slightly more restrained take on the idea, as Netflix goes out of its way to call it an “adaptation.” Interestingly, the movie is being directed by indie horror darling Adam Wingard, who takes several visual cues from past versions while adding his own spin. That said, fans have already raised concerns about whitewashing, as the movie moves from Japan to America, so we’ll have to see how that unfolds as the movie inches closer to an August release.

(via Twitter)