Destin Daniel Cretton’s Naruto Movie Will Stay “Very Close” To The Original
Believe it!
Is a good live-action remake of an anime possible? On the Hollywood side of things, the track record is pretty spotty. For every Speed Racer (which, to be fair, was also derided in its time), there’s Dragonball Evolution. Or Ghost in the Shell. Okay, it’s a pretty bad track record, at least compared to the slate of pretty good anime adaptations that the Japanese film industry has to its name (Battle Royale, Alice in Borderland, Rurouni Kenshin,andBlade of the Immortal, to name a few). So whenever Hollywood has its eyes on a big-name anime, it’s always cause for concern. But perhaps director Destin Daniel Cretton can turn that reputation around.
It was recently reported that Cretton has been tapped to direct a live-action remake of Naruto, the popular ninja anime that ran for nearly two decades (and has an ongoing spinoff that’s still thriving). It’s a lot of pressure on any director, especially one who joins the project after it had been in development hell for nearly a decade. In a conversation with Inverse, Cretton spoke carefully about bringing Naruto to Hollywood.
“I’m a big fan of it and a big fan of [series creator Masashi] Kishimoto-san,” Cretton tells Inverse. “I’ll say that we are staying very close to what Kishimoto-san created. I think the biggest mistake we could do is bite off too much for one movie. I think what we’re making right now is very exciting.”
A loyal adaptation of the source material is all an anime fan can ask for. However, fidelity is just one piece of the puzzle — there also has to be an understanding of the heightened tone and stylized action that is unique to anime and manga. But Cretton, who managed to fuse Eastern and Western sensibilities pretty seamlessly in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and will next bring a “grounded” approach to Spider-Man in the upcoming Brand New Day, actually seems like a sensible choice.
Shang-Chi managed to pay tonal and stylistic homage to Hong Kong action flicks, while doing its due diligence as a Marvel superhero film. So perhaps it’s Cretton who will be the rare Hollywood director to really get what it takes to make a Naruto movie. It’s part coming-of-age comedy and part epic tragedy, spanning decades in the lives of its main characters. And that tonal disparity is most present in its protagonist, Naruto, who gives the impression of being an airheaded goofball, but is also an orphan who’s ostracized by his entire village because he’s the vessel for a vengeful fox demon that once destroyed half the town. And that’s just the beginning of the very complicated and dense saga of Naruto.
If Cretton plans to not “bite off too much for one movie,” it sounds like his movie could just encompass the first few story arcs in Naruto, which will follow the more lighthearted coming-of-age shenanigans of the class of ninjas-in-training, and end in some pretty devastating familial tragedies and betrayals. And if it’s successful, Cretton could easily turn Naruto into a long and epic series.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens in theaters July 31. Naruto has not yet started production.
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