Choosing Willem Dafoe to interpreter shingami Ryuk — basically a emotional state of death — was applaud as one of the better casting decisions in Netflix ’s Death Note . Director Adam Wingard told io9 that , while Dafoe was his first option among actors , he in the first place wanted to go with a glamorous Isaac M. Singer for the part .
While the Netflix version of Death Note make a lot of change to the original manga story , the one thing that stays fundamentally superposable is the designing of Ryuk , a sorting of demonic life who delivers the Death Note — a Christian Bible that will stamp out anyone whose name is write in its pages — to the character of Light . Ryuk , said Wingard , was an essential part of maintaining the integrity of Death Note .
“ It was consequence from the get - go , ” said Wingard . “ I witness Ryuk as being the definitive carry over of ‘ What is Death Note , really ? ’ Just the face of that . ”
Apparently , that was n’t always the casing , though . Ryuk ’s presence in the cinema went through many changes as several directors came on board and leave alone . “ It ’s really interesting , because you know , this movie was coif up at Warner Bros. I think they ’d been acquire it for something like eight year , ” explain Wingard . “ It go through Shane Black , it hold up through Gus van Sant , of all multitude — which I would have sleep with to have seen . I hope it would have been like Gerry , and it would just be Light and Ryuk walking through the desert for an hour and a one-half . That would be awing . And if that ’s what it was go to be , I palpate big for not letting that come about . ”
Ryuk was , in fact , miss from some version of the script . “ There were originally versions where , apparently , the studio was n’t die to put Ryuk in it at all . Which seems kind of farcical , ” Wingard continued . “ At the remainder of the day , I guess there ’s not a ton of precedent in American live - legal action films with a monster wear down glam rock and roll clothing and leather pants and material , you know ? So I gauge on one hand you may see , like , what the hell is this ? But , you make out , it ’s good that by the time I came on they at least come onboard with Ryuk . ”
That description of Ryuk go a piece like David Bowie ’s Goblin King from Labyrinth , and when I pointed that out , Wingard revealed who his first choices were for the part of Ryuk :
“ Yeah ! There you go . Well , as a matter of fact , David Bowie was really originally who I wanted to [ be the voice of ] Ryuk — but then David Bowie died . And then the second soul on my list was Prince , weirdly enough — and then he died . And I was like , we sire to cease , we ’re literally killing them off . Which is really pathologic , but it was on-key . ”
rather , Wingard went with Dafoe , whom Wingard described as “ always telephone number one ” on the listing of actor actors . “ He was the first person we actually go about . It ’s one of the few times I ’ve actually approached an player right off and they say yes , thank god . ”
Death Note premiere August 25 on Netflix .
Adam WingardDeath NoteMoviesNetflix
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