Maybe I'm just being cynical. Maybe I'm seeing this as glass half empty but when I first read that this was in the works I wondered to myself ok, what white dude is going to play Light? Shia Lebouf? Justin Chadwick? Tom Welling (They’re not that dumb). Hey these things happen. Sadly.

ShockTillYouDrop.com broke this news that...

Within Universal's production notes for The Strangers it has been revealed - under producer Doug Davison's bio - writers Vlas and Charles Parlapanides are penning an American remake of Death Note for Vertigo Films. The brothers are currently overseeing the development of CW's upcoming television series Undercover, directed by John Stockwell (Turistas).

Death Note, Shusuke Kaneko's adaptation of the popular manga, has become a cult hit and spawned a sequel Death Note: The Last Name. The story concerns a student, Light Yagami, who discovers a notebook that gives him the ability to jot someone's name down within its pages and kill someone.

Vertigo, in addition to producing Strangers, is also at work on a remake of Anguish.

Regardless of whatever racial make-up the cast is the movie should be a hit. It's a great premise, great cat and mouse scenes, great icon creating characters and well only a complete and total twat of a director would take all the positives of Death Note and ruin it.