The much beloved Japanese manga series “Death Note,” that follows a teen who acquires a supernatural notebook, has had a lot of attention and excitement surrounding its film adaptation.
The new version of the story takes place in Seattle, Washington, and boasts Nat Wolff in the role of the morally ambiguous lead Light Turner. Thursday night the cast and crew of the film made their way to the AMC Loews Lincoln Square theater for the premiere. Cast members Nat Wolff, Margaret Qualley, Lakeith Stanfield, and Willem Dafoe were in attendance, along with director Adam Wingard, where The Knockturnal got the chance to speak with some of them about the movie
On adapting the film from an already popular manga series, director Adam Wingard said he took some creative liberties while also showing a certain amount of respect to its source, “To me it wasn’t about the respect coming from ‘we have to translate this to a T.’ It was about re-exploring the source material and taking a new route to it. For instance, the character of Light is almost split into two between Light and Mia, and their coupling sort of creates this Kira phenomenon.[…] It was also cool to take [distinctly American things] and use that as a backstory.”
Shaded morality plays a big role in the movie, and star Margaret Qualley says her character’s deteriorating ethics come from “Someone who could see the bigger picture in a place of over responsibility to do what she what she believes is right.” Her costar Nat Wolff, who portrays Light Turner in the film, spoke on his character’s moral ambiguity in the story as well, “That was one of the parts that attracted me to it is watching somebody with all this power, watching it spiral out of control, but when I got the part I was like ‘why don’t I make my own death note and see how it goes. I thought I wouldn’t be able to think of any names but cut to me 10 names in. Anybody with this much power, it would get to their head.”
Following the screening, the cast and crew headed to the Empire Hotel for the premiere after party, where they celebrated its much-anticipated release.
Death Note hits Netflix Aug. 25th