There’s a live-action Naruto film in development with Shang-Chi’s Destin Daniel Cretton directing. Believe it!
The movie will hail from Lionsgate, and Cretton will also be producing with Jeyun Munford through Hisako, Cretton’s company. Avi Arad, Ari Arad, Emmy Yu of Arad Productions, the producers of the upcoming Borderlands film, and Jeremy Latacham of Dungeon’s Dragons will be producing alongside Cretton and Munford.
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Naruto is the eponymous manga franchise created by Masashi Kishimoto, revolving around a young boy by the name of Naruto Uzumaki who aspires to become the greatest ninja the world has ever seen. Despite his small stature, Naruto is more powerful and dangerous than one can imagine as he was imbued with the spirit of the Nine-Tailed Fox.
The Rise of Naruto
Naturo’s adventures were serialized in Japan’s Weekly Shonen Jump during 1999 and 2014. The character’s popularity and influence spread beyond the land of the rising sun, with over 250 million copies of the collected volumes sold worldwide. Numerous anime adaptations ran across major TV networks such as Cartoon Network via Toonami or Adult Swim, Disney XD, and Animax, among many others.
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The franchise has spawned vast arrays of videogames, merchandise, and collectibles, making the “Narutomania” all the more intoxicating.
Hollywood has a bipolar history with live-action adaptations of manga or anime. However, there has been more stability in recent years with adaptations like Netflix’s One Piece and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Destin For Naruto
I do believe that if anyone can make a live-action Naruto film special, it would be Destin Daniel Cretton. In addition to Shang-Chi, he has worked on American Born Chinese, The Glass Castle, and is currently working on Marvel’s Wonder Man series. He was even given Kishimoto’s blessing after he visited Tokyo.
“When I heard of Destin’s attachment, it happened to be right after watching a blockbuster action film of his, and I thought he would be the perfect director for Naruto,” said Kishimoto in a statement. “After enjoying his other films and understanding that his forte is in creating solid dramas about people, I became convinced that there is no other director for Naturo. In actually meeting Destin, I also found him to be an open-minded director who was willing to embrace my input, and felt strongly that we would be able to cooperate together in the production process.”
A live-action Naruto movie has been in development with Lionsgate since 2015. Cretton now coming on board as the director is a strong indication of progress. Hopefully, we will see the movie by late 2025 or 2026.
How do you feel knowing that the live-action Naruto movie is moving forward? Do you believe that Destin Daniel Cretton will do right by the movie? Let us know on social media. Follow us so you don’t miss any updates. We’re always watching.
Source: THR
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