THE LEFTOVERS' Margaret Qualley May Join Adam Wingard's DEATH NOTE

Adam Wingard (The Guest, You're Next) is prepping his American adaptation of the Japanese manga Death Note for Warner Bros., and the filmmaker may have just found his female lead. THR reports that actress Margaret Qualley, who plays Jill Garvey on HBO's The Leftovers, is in talks to join Paper Towns star Nat Wolff in the movie.

The story, set in major metropolitan American city, centers on a student who discovers a supernatural notebook that allows him to kill anyone by writing the victim's name, who then decides to cleanse the world of whom he deems evil. As the student is tracked by a reclusive police officer, a cat-and-mouse game ensues.

THR doesn't mention what character Qualley is up for, but it seems likely she'd play an American version of Misa Amane, a model who has her own notebook that allows her to kill whoever she wants. I haven't read the original manga but it sounds like there's not much to her other than just being a lovesick girl, so hopefully writer Jeremy Slater (who worked on an early draft of Fantastic Four, long before it turned into the failure we saw in theaters) has given her much more to do in this film version. (And please correct me if I'm wrong in the comments — again, I've never read the manga.) Production is set to get underway this spring, and we'll keep you updated when we hear more about this movie as it moves toward production.