Nat Wolff Will Play Lead Role in Live-Action DEATH NOTE Film

An American adaptation of the Japanese manga series Death Note has been in the works for years, with people like Shane Black and Gus Van Sant once attached to direct. Now The Guest and You're Next director Adam Wingard has been tasked with bringing it to the big screen, and Variety reports that he's just found his star: Nat Wolff, who you may recognize from The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns.

For those who don't know, the story follows a high school student named Light Yagami, who finds a book called the Death Note which has the power to kill anyone whose name is written within it. Here's a more detailed description of the story:

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects - and he's bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal...or his life? Light tests the boundaries of the Death Note powers as L and the police begin to close in. Luckily Light's father is the head of the Japanese National Police Agency and leaves vital information about the case lying around the house. With access to his father's files, Light can keep one step ahead of the authorities. But who is the strange man following him, and how can Light guard against enemies whose names he doesn't know?

I've never read the manga and haven't seen the anime or the trilogy of Japanese live action films, but I liked Wolff in Paper Towns and think he sounds like a decent fit for the character as described here. The most recent draft of the script was written by Jeremy Slater (The Lazarus Effect, Fantastic Four), and production is set to get underway in the spring. We'll be sure to keep you updated with more when we hear it. What do you think about this casting?