Still best known for the John Green adaptations The Fault In Our Stars and this year’s Paper Towns, Nat Wolff is looking to make a mark outside of Green’s work. He’s already attached to one of James Franco’s numerous directorial efforts and is now in the process of landing the lead in Adam Wingard’s take on horror manga **Death Note.
Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s work focuses on Japanese high school student Light Yagami, who comes across a handy notebook penned by the death god Ryuk, which allows its owner to kill anyone he pleases by writing their name in the book and picturing their face. Light decides to use his newfound power to rid the world of evil, and the series follows his progress, and that of the cops on his trail. Killing in the name of altruism is all very well, but the police still don’t like it much.
With hefty sales in Japan and internationally, the manga has been adapted several times already in both anime and live-action forms, with Jeremy Slater responsible for the current script. Wingard took over the project from Shane Black, who had been developing it for a while before targeting other projects. He aims to kick off shooting next year, after finishing work on his current scare-packed thriller, The Woods.
Wolff, who has also worked on comedy drama Ashby, will next be seen in Nancy Meyers’ The Intern with Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro, due out on October 2, and Grandma, which stars Lily Tomlin and will be released in the UK on December 11.