Prefer it or not, a live-action Naruto film appears to be coming from Hollywood after spending a few years in improvement hell. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton is presently hooked up to the mission, and whereas he may need the directing sauce wanted to tug off a flashy manga/anime adaptation, we’re understandably frightened about such a tough transition regardless. Now, the film’s unique author is making an attempt to calm followers down.
Leisure Weekly lately talked to scribe Tasha Huo, the showrunner for Netflix’s upcoming Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft animated sequence, and naturally, tried to extract new data relating to Naruto. To their shock (and everybody else’s), she really spoke at size concerning the means of placing that film collectively up to now.
Whereas Cretton is now a part of Hollywood’s ‘large leagues’ because of Shang-Chi’s cheap success in 2021 – simply as we had been beginning to exit the worst of the Covid pandemic – his background doing unique work is in depth, and he is additionally discovered time to proceed to provide shorts and TV sequence after his Marvel film discovered an viewers. Huo praised that side of his profession, saying “his personal writing and storytelling” is “very private and relatable” to viewers earlier than teasing the primary thought behind the Naruto film is to give attention to the characters and what they undergo: “That is positively a film that comes at it from a love of who Naruto is and that character and his relationships.”
Amidst all of the flashy motion sequences and mythology-building, most Marvel Cinematic Universe followers admit {that a} large a part of Shang-Chi’s attraction was the connection between the protagonist and Xu Wenwu aka The (actual) Mandarin on the heart of all of it; actually stable household drama gluing all the pieces collectively, one thing that Avengers: Infinity Battle and Endgame’s creatives actually understood and that a number of different Marvel flicks did not seize.
“After having fun with his different movies and understanding that his forte is in creating stable dramas about individuals, I grew to become satisfied that there isn’t any different director for [Naruto]. In really assembly Destin, I additionally discovered him to be an open-minded director who was keen to embrace my enter, and felt strongly that we might be capable to cooperate collectively within the manufacturing course of,” Huo added. Whereas Cretton is now additionally hooked up to Naruto as author, probably remodeling the script into one thing he is absolutely comfy with earlier than transferring into lively pre-production, the actual fact he is absolutely embraced the earlier author’s enter is encouraging information and one thing that does not all the time occur with this type of complicated manufacturing.
Nonetheless, there are lots of issues that would go fallacious with a big-budget anime adaptation arrange at Lionsgate. Netflix’s One Piece sequence was encouraging, however theatrical motion pictures are very completely different beasts, so we’re hoping that Cretton manages to navigate these waters with much less bother than when he was hooked up to the now-cancelled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (not his fault).