Halia Abdel-Meguid to Write and Executive Produce Death Note Television Series Adaptation For Netflix

Item: Halia Abdel-Meguid to Write and Executive Produce Death Note Television Series Adaptation For Netflix
Author: Karen Benardello

by Karen Benardello

Filmmaker Halia Abdel-Meguid has signed on to write and executive produce the upcoming live-action series adaptation of the Japanese manga and anime series, Death Note, for Netflix, Deadline is reporting. The show is one of the projects being developed by Upside Down Pictures, the newly launched production company of Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer, under their overall deal with the streaming service.

Abdel-Meguid, who speaks Japanese and previously lived in Tokyo, is a longtime fan of the manga. She signed on to pen and produce the live-action show after she began working with the Duffers on another Upside Down Pictures project for Netflix; she’s also a writing consultant on their series adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s 1984 novel, The Talisman.

The filmmaker is also known for scribing The Devil in the White City, Hulu’s upcoming adaptation of Erik Larson’s 2003 book of the same name. The show is is being executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese.

Death Note‘s manga was written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. It was published in 12 volumes between 2003 and 2006.

The magna focuses on a bright teenager, Light Yagami, who discovers a mysterious black notebook that gives him supernatural power. He can use his newfound ability to cause another person’s death by writing their name in the book. The teen becomes intoxicated with power as he decides to cleanse the world of undesirables, while a law enforcement team becomes aware of what he’s doing and tries to stop him.

The show is Netflix’s second adaptation of the magna; the first was a live-action film that was released in 2017 and starred Nat Wolff as Light. The movie also starred Lakeith Stanfield, Margaret Qualley, Shea Whigham, Paul Nakauchi, Jason Liles and Willem Dafoe.

The upcoming life-action show will offer an entirely new take on the original IP than the film. However, several producers of the previous screen adaptation are also attached to the television series, including Dan Lin (Rideback) and Roy Lee (Vertigo) as executive producers, and Jonathan Eirich (Rideback) and Miri Yoon (Vertigo) as co-exec producers.

Besides Death Note, there are several other massive anime adaptations under production at Netflix, including One Piece, an ambitious retelling of the long-running anime and manga series. There’s also the American anime-inspired property Avatar, which has made headlines over several issues, including the exit of creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

Check out more of Karen Benardello’s articles.