Lionsgate has at last put down some roots with its live-action version of Naruto, the monumental manga and anime from Masashi Kishimoto. The project is no longer in development purgatory after all these years; production is moving along and the film is finding its footing.
Destin Daniel Cretton, the director behind Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, has been candid in recent interview with Inverse as to how he is steering this high-profile Hollywood foray into the ninja epic. In laying out his plans to make the Hidden Leaf Village a reality, Cretton made it clear that this is not your typical franchise assignment. He has a personal stake in the source material. After sitting down with Kishimoto himself to see eye to eye on the vision, the filmmaker says the thematic underpinnings of the adaptation will be defined by the weight Naruto Uzumaki must bear as host to the Nine-Tailed Fox, as well as his inner turmoil and sense of alienation.
Bringing Shonen Scales to the Screen
There is no easy way to put it: for a filmmaker, making a movie out of a shonen staple with 250 million copies in print is an uphill battle. The project has seen its share of missteps over the last ten years, ever since Michael Gracey was first put on the case. Now, with Cretton at the helm, there is a clear shift in direction. He is bringing the kind of hard-edged, character-focused approach he has made his mark with on some of the big comic-book franchises.
Cretton is well aware of the fine line one has to walk to give some substance to what is, after all, very stylized 2D anime. “You have to make the fantasy work in a real-world setting,” he says of the challenge.
“It’s fantastic, but it’s also absurd. The rules are things you almost take completely for granted because of the medium you’re watching them through. But when you translate that into real people speaking real lines and grounding a real plot… well, that was the challenge, but also the joy, because it’s inherently entertaining.”
The search is on for the right faces to put in front of the camera as Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. With casting in full swing, this is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated projects in Hollywood, coming at a time when the studio system is in a bit of a frenzy for top-tier Japanese material.
The Right Kind of Auteur Touch
When it comes to live-action anime, the creative team has to decide if they will honour the source material’s emotional core or simply put on a show. The difference is what makes or breaks an adaptation. Cretton seems to have that distinction in mind with this long-gestating project. In eschewing CGI ninjutsu for the more subtle work of capturing Naruto’s loneliness and resilience, he is making a statement that the filmmakers know why the manga became such a global touchstone to begin with.