Lionsgate
The live-action ‘Naruto’ movie is back on track with a new specialized scriptwriter on board
After the success of Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ adaptation, Lionsgate hopes to do the same for ‘Naruto’ by bringing in a writer with experience in adapting videogames and comics.
The live-action adaptations of anime, cartoons, comics, and video games have not exactly been the most celebrated of the medium. Good examples of this are productions as criticized as ‘Dragonball Evolution’, ‘Death Note’ or the most recent ‘Saint Seiya/Knights of the Zodiac’ film; on the contrary, this summer Netflix gave us one of the best adaptations with ‘One Piece’, a series that has been a pleasant surprise for fans of the original work and one of the biggest hits of the platform for 2023.
And it is precisely thanks that success that several production companies have stepped on the accelerator to reactivate projects that remained in limbo, as is the case of the live-action film based on ‘Naruto’ in charge of Lionsgate. This was reported by Variety, which has confirmed that Tasha Huo is in charge of writing the script for the film.
‘Naruto’ in live-action steps on the accelerator
Lionsgate had already announced years ago their intention to adapt the story of ‘Naruto’ in live action, although practically nothing else has been known since then until now. After the strikes of both actors and screenwriters in Hollywood, many projects have resumed their different production phases; and in this case, writer Tasha Huo was revealed as the one in charge of the script.
It is no coincidence that Lionsgate has acquired the services of Huo, since the writer is responsible for the scripts of other adaptations such as the upcoming ‘Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft’ for Netflix, and ‘Red Sonja’, among others. And since 2018 we had no news other than its director Michael Gracey (‘The Greatest Showman’), assured that they were working on a script that would be liked by Masashi Kishimoto, the author of manga.
Be that as it may, Tasha Huo seems to have some experience with this type of adaptations of characters that are already part of popular culture: “Adapting iconic characters or IP makes the writing of it easier, because the passion for writing it is already there. I’m so inspired by these characters already that it’s exciting to just take a part of their journey and try to tell that fun story in a way that would appeal to me as a fan.”