Naruto (Live-action adaptation)

News from Variety: Destin Daniel Cretton is directing and writing a live-action film adaptation of the manga Naruto:

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/naruto-film-lionsgate-destin-daniel-cretton-1235920799/

The film is being produced by Avi Arad (The Spider-Man franchise), one of two produced at Lionsgate.

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Feb 23rd 2024 at 3:55:35 PM

Naruto not being a series is surprising to me but on the bright side, I know the action is going to be really good.

I wonder how they are going to handle this story-wise.

The original manga is a coming of age story and involves a lot of moving parts and characters that build off of each other. Trying to make a "condensed" story would be an up hill battle.

The Zabuza arc is one of the most self-contained arcs in the series and would probably work well for an adaption. It has the fewest characters and requires the least amount of set up. But it would require some creativity to introduce a new audience to Kakashi and the trio while also setting up the world in just one to two hours.

Hearing that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘s director will adapt Naruto as a live-action movie made me think that is an April Fool joke.

I hope it won't be like M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar The Last Airbender movie.

Imma be honest, I watched the anime, but I fell off early into Shippuden after all the filler… but yeah. The Zabuza arc. That was the arc with the battle on the bridge? The battle in the mist?

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Feb 23rd 2024 at 5:35:41 AM

Team 7 goes in a bodyguard mission that turns out to be more dangerous than anticipated.

Do hope that the actions scenes are at least engaging for me for the film it self even if it has many flaws when it comes out in my eyes.

Yeah that was it.

The LA One Piece series worked because it adapted the parts of the manga that were relatively small-scale and down-to-earth, so yeah, the Zabuza arc is probably the best shot, though some arrangements will be needed.

I think the LA One Piece series also benefited a lot from having multiple episodes. So, they had time to gradually introduce the world, characters, and plot threads.

This project seems interesting because it's just one movie to start with. So, I wonder how many characters and plot threads they are going to focus on. I think the Zabuza arc works because it not only has a very well-organized plot and minimal cast but it also has down time for flashbacks and character moments. It's a good place to shuffle things around too.

Edited by Freshwater on Feb 23rd 2024 at 10:27:20 AM

I once said in the other thread that a trilogy will do part 1 justice.

To copy past myself:

...........

First movie

-Naruto's school test

-Graduation

-Formation of Team 7

-The bell test

-The mission in the land of waves, when Naruto and Sasuke finally learn to work toghter and use their abilities to defeat Zabosa and Hako, and so the movie end in a victorious tone, with team 7 finally becoming true Shinobi.

...................

Second Movie

-The Chunnin exam

-Konoha's invasion.

-Movie end with the Third Hokage's funeral and a final panel of Itachi watching Konoha from above as a sequel hook for..

................

Third movie

-Itachi's visit

-The search for Tsunade.

-The Sasuke's retrieval arc

-The trilogy ends in a sad but still hopeful tone, with Naruto leaving to train with Jiraya and vowing to save Sasuke no matter what.

Edited by jawal on Feb 23rd 2024 at 7:33:33 PM

...I don't think you realize how long those arcs are. The start through land of waves is a bit under four volumes. A bit much to fit in a single movie, but doable with some judicious cuts and compression. The chuunin exams and the remainder of part 1 are each over eleven volumes. Absolutely not doable in a single film. Like, they'd need trilogies of their own

Not every single panel in the manga need to be adapted.

You can cut some parts, like the Sound trio ambushes after facing Orochimaru, and abridge some of the secondary characters matches.

I feel that you can make a good 2h30min or 3h good adaptation of the exam and Invasion.

No, seriously. A standard anime adaptation of that much manga would be 2-cour; about 8 hours with openings, endings, and commercials removed. You're proposing cutting out two thirds of the material

(shrug)

Agree to disagree.

Ngl really think a series would be better but like sure.

Wonder if they'll make Naruto mixed race like Kishomoto said he would want for an adaptation

The key issue is whether they'll age the characters up or if they'll acknowledge this is a society using child soldiers in a way Western mentality is wired to find repulsive. The manga and anime have no issues with that but it's like Batman and Robin, for some reason we don't blink an eye at a child Robin in animation or comics but even back in the nineties they felt they had to put Chris O'Donnel in the Dick Grayson role so Batman wouldn't look like a lunatic abusing a kid.

I recall thats the reason Stan Lee didn't like sidekicks

I'm apprehensive about making this a film. Netlfix tried compressing two arcs' worth of Yuyu Hakusho into five episodes and the end result was that all these memorable beats from the original series had no buildup and therefore no reason to happen aside from "because it's canon".

And quite frankly, I will said it did, I like the netflix adaptation and it manage to have his good pacing after all

Which resulted in that weird plot where Batman adopted what looked like a 20-year-old kid.

Anyway, yeah, I didn’t think of that but it would be awkward. Though even ignoring that, the issue would be to find good 13-year-old actors for the roles…