‘Death Note’: Halia Abdel-Meguid To Write & EP Series Adaptation Of Manga For Netflix & Duffer Bros’ Upside Down Pictures

EXCLUSIVE: Halia Abdel-Meguid has been tapped to write and executive produce Death Note, a live-action series adaptation of the Japanese manga and anime series originally written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, which is in the works at Netflix. As revealed by Deadline in July, Death Note is one of the projects on the development slate of Upside Down, the newly launched production company of Stranger Things creators Matt & Ross Duffer under their Netflix overall deal.

A longtime fan of the manga and anime series, Abdel-Meguid — who speaks Japanese and has previously lived in Tokyo — is taking on Death Note having worked with the Duffers on another Upside Down Pictures development project for Netflix. She is a writing consultant on their series adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s novel The Talisman.

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The original Death Note focuses on a bright teenager who discovers a mysterious black notebook that gives him supernatural power over life and death, the latter caused by writing a person’s name in the book. The teen becomes intoxicated with power as he decides to cleanse the world of undesirables, as a law enforcement team tries to stop him. Netflix made a film adaptation in 2017, but the series will be an entirely new take on the original IP.

Several producers of the 2017 movie are also attached to the series: Dan Lin (Rideback) and Roy Lee (Vertigo) as executive producers, and Jonathan Eirich (Rideback) and Miri Yoon (Vertigo) as co-exec producers.

Abdel-Meguid also wrote on Hulu’s upcoming adaptation of The Devil in the White City. She got her start as an actress and musician in London before turning to screenwriting and graduating from AFI in 2018.

She is repped by, Rain, Paradigm and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

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