I generally don’t like to talk about these live adaption of anime as they generally tend to flop, but maybe things might be looking promising with Director Michael Gracey’s Naruto anime adaptation.
In an interview, Director Michael Gracey stated:
“I don’t know [if it will be my next film], to be honest. You know Kishimoto, who created the original series, he’s just a genius. So many Hollywood adaptations of really popular manga series just don’t get it right, and for me what was really important was that if I was gonna do Naruto, I wanted to actually work with Kishimoto and get a script to a stage where he would look at it and be excited about realizing it. Because no one knows the world better than the person who created it.
“So for me, as it stands, we’re still working on the script. Because until that script is at a level that I’m excited about, I have no interest in destroying an amazing franchise, as has happened before. But I think the great thing is that everyone involved, from Lionsgate to the producers, are all of the same mind. Everyone knows how precious this property is and to me it’s incredibly exciting, and I love the work that I’ve gotten to do on it to date. At this stage, no one is going to go into production until we’ve got a script that excites everyone. So whether it’s my next one or not, I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see.”
You see, most western directors tend to take these IP’s and add their own twist to it. It then gets to a point where you couldn’t even recognize the IP anymore. Michael Gracey however really wants to stay on the creators good side, and in turn the fans good side. Whether or not this live adaption holds up is anyone’s guess but if the creator is going out of his way to stay true to the source material, then its worth given him the benefit of the doubt….for now.
The only downside to his is the pacing of this film. It’s almost guaranteed that they’re gonna skip a lot the stuff that was covered in the anime. Realistically, it is to be expected. There’s no way they’ll be able to fit in everything, so Michael Gracey will have to be very selective as to what elements he’ll want to add into the movie. Anyways, I’ll look forward to seeing what the final product will amount to in the end.
