Gus Van Sant to Direct Live-Action 'Death Note' Remake?

Here's a film that has been sitting on the shelf in purgatory forever. Warner Bros. has been developing a remake of the manga and anime hit, Death Note, and long attached to direct it has been the red-hot Shane Black. But as Black became busier with Iron Man 3, his forever developing Doc Savage film (also in a state of limbo), and now a Predator sequel, it was looking like Death Note had been forgotten. But now The Tracking Board says the project is back on and with Gus Van Sant the unlikely choice to direct it.

The site says van Sant, best known for Good Will Hunting, will direct from a script penned by Black, Anthony Bagarozzi, and Charles Mondry. Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata began the Death Note manga in 2003, spinning it off into a multimedia stud as an animated TV series, live-action films, soundtracks, video games, and a bunch of light novels. The story centers on a high student who discovers the "Death Note", a notebook that causes anyone whose name is written in it to be killed. He decides to use the book to murder those he deems unworthy, mostly criminals, but it's a slippery slope that eventually becomes quite the moral dilemma. It also catches the attention of the world's greatest detective who begins looking into the mysterious deaths. There are demons and other supernatural elements that muddy things up somewhat, but overall the Death Note films are pretty good which is why they ended up on our Best Anime Ever list like a million years ago.

Not exactly the kind of film we'd expect from Van Sant who doesn't have anything close to resembling Death Note on his resume. Still, it's an interesting prospect and we'll see if it pans out.