When it comes to filmmaking, Matt and Ross Duffer have recently formed a new firm called Upside Down Pictures. It has also been announced that the Stranger Things creators would be working on a new television series based on the popular Japanese manga and anime series Death Note, which will premiere in 2019. Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata collaborated on the original manga version of Death Note. In all, the series lasted from 2003 to 2006. This is the narrative of Light Yagami, a high school student who discovers the titular Death Note, a black book that allows him to kill anybody he names and faces in it.
Ryuk, a Shinigami who dropped the Death Note to Earth, visits Light as he begins to exploit the book for malicious purposes. “Kira,” an intriguing investigator known as L, is brought in to solve the mystery of the mysterious deaths of criminals throughout the world. For 37 episodes, Tetsuro Araki directed the anime version of the series, which was based on the manga and lasted from 2006 to 2007, and went on to work on other Attack on Titan projects and the Netflix anime feature Bubble. Death Note is one of the most well-known and renowned series in the world, having garnered several accolades including a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes for its anime adaptation.
For the first time, a live-action version of Death Note has been created in the United States, with the first film being released in 2012. In 2017, Netflix released a Death Note live-action film directed by Godzilla vs. King Kong filmmaker Adam Wingard, another attempt at an adaptation. The setting was changed from Japan to Seattle, Washington, and the cast included Nat Wolff as Light Turner, Lakeith Stanfield as L, and Willem Defoe as Ryuk (Jason Liles played the character in costume). The American version was critically panned and now has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 37%. The unveiling of Upside Down Pictures also revealed several other important parts of the company and its planned slate, including the Death Note project.
An announcement was made confirming Hilary Leavitt’s appointment as CEO of the company. This new production business, which was founded by The Duffer Brothers, has also announced a live-action Stranger Things spin-off series, with Upside Down and 21 Laps producing. Sonia Friedman, Stephen Daldry (The Crown, Billy Elliot, The Reader), and Netflix are working on a new stage drama set in the Stranger Things world and mythology, which Daldry will direct. Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Talisman will be made into a TV series with the help of Amblin Entertainment and Paramount Television, with Curtis Gwinn serving as the show’s executive producer (Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance).
As part of the entire contract the Duffer Brothers have with Netflix, the business will be creating both film and television projects. For the brothers, Upside Down Pictures aims to tell tales that “take place at that lovely crossroads where the ordinary meets the exceptional, where great spectacle co-exists with intimate character work, where heart wins out over cynicism,” as stated by The Duffer Brothers. Having just launched season 4, the duo’s Stranger Things is now Netflix’s all-time most popular English TV series. Stranger Things is a hit. The new live-action version of Death Note has yet to begin filming or be released, and no release date has been given.