'Naruto' Live-Action Movie: Project Still in Scriptwriting Phase 3 Years After It Was Announced, Here's Why

By Janna Dela Cruz, Christian Post Contributor Sunday, April 01, 2018

A live-action adaptation of the long-running manga and anime franchise "Naruto" is currently being developed by Lionsgate.

Knowing the horrible mishandling of other established manga franchises when given the Hollywood treatment ("Dragon Ball Evolution" remains a big a nightmare to Goku fans), fans were understandably worried about Naruto's universe potentially being butchered.

In a new update, Michael Gracey, who is on board as director of the "Naruto" live-action movie, emphasized that this is also something that he is trying to avoid at all costs.

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This is why three years after he was tapped to helm the project, the development is still in the scriptwriting phase to the point that it is unclear to the director if it will be the next film he will be working on.

Gracey recognizes Hollywood's reputation when it comes to adapting Japanese franchises and is not looking to add to it. Since he has no plans in "destroying an amazing franchise," he vows to make sure the script for the live-action "Naruto" movie is approved by series creator himself Masashi Kishimoto, who he called a "genius."

"So many Hollywood adaptations of really popular manga series just don't get it right," Gracey said in his latest update. "And for me what was really important was that if I was gonna do Naruto, I wanted to actually work with Kishimoto and get a script to a stage where he would look at it and be excited about realizing it. Because no one knows the world better than the person who created it," he went on to say.

He said that the "Naruto" live-action movie script is not yet "at a level that I'm excited about" and pledges not to settle down just to get the project going, but instead will see to it that it is up to the standards of the established franchise and its massive fan base.

This won't be hard to do as Gracey assures that everyone working on the movie such as Lionsgate and the producers, also recognize the importance of getting this script right.

"Everyone knows how precious this property is and to me it's incredibly exciting, and I love the work that I've gotten to do on it to date," the director said.

"At this stage, no one is going to go into production until we've got a script that excites everyone. So whether it's my next one or not, I don't know. We'll have to wait and see," he went on to say.

Gracey started out in the business as a visual effects compositor and only recently made his feature directorial debut in the musical drama "The Greatest Showman," which stars Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum.

Nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, the film is inspired by the story of the creation of Barnum and Bailey Circus and the lives of the stars in it.

Despite getting award recognitions, the movie ultimately received mixed and average reviews from review aggregators like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

"Naruto" fans who would want to see more of Gracey to gauge how he will do in the live-action film can also check out his upcoming Elton John biopic "Rocketman."