8 Movies That Escaped Development Hell (And Weren't Worth The Wait)
6. Death Note
Considering the fan love for this manga has been fuelling the desire for a movie since 2007, you'd think the filmmakers would have spent all the ten years it took to release to refine exactly the right tone for it, that reflects the vast source material and die-hard following in appropriate fashion. What audiences got instead was not received well in the slightest however, with the studio's lack of confidence in marketing Death Note's bizarre themes resulting in a script that contradicted the source material's message.
Passed around from Vertigo Entertainment to Warner Bros. and from Shane Black to Adam Wingard with plenty of other names in between, Hollywood attempted to turn the Japanese story into one that appealed to Western audiences in all the wrong ways. Initially, the idea was floated to remove Ryuk - the death demon and one of the lynchpins of the series' success - entirely, as well as making central character Light one intent on vengeance rather than justice.
In the end, the long wait and confused hot-potato toss surrounding the movie ended up not serving it well in the slightest. It was picked up by Netflix after confused distributors didn't know what to do with it, and negatively reviewed into film oblivion before fading back in to obscurity afterwards. Bronze star for effort.