Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton, who co-wrote and directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, has been roped in to pen and helm a live-action adaptation of Naruto. It is a popular Japanese manga series, which talks about Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who dreams of becoming the leader of his village but also happens to have the spirit of a nine-tailed demon fox inside him.

What will Naruto live-action film focus on? 

Cretton will also produce alongside Jeyun Munford through his company, Hisako. The story was serialised in Japan’s popular Weekly Shonen Jump from 1999 to 2014, tracking the character’s coming-of-age, friendships, and many super-powered ninja battles, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

Naruto became an instant rage as over 250 million copies of the collected volumes were sold in more than 60 countries and territories. The series is written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. An animated series too was launched and ran for years on Cartoon Network, Disney XD, Adult Swim and other networks.

It has been adapted into video game form and continues to be a merchandising juggernaut. Naruto has essentially been building hard-core fans around the world for 25 years.

Naruto creator blesses Destin Daniel Cretton

Cretton has Kishimoto’s blessing after a visit to 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.

Kishimoto said that after enjoying Cretton’s other films and understanding that his forte is in creating solid dramas about people, he was convinced that there is no other director for Naruto. “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.”

The adaptation has been in development with Lionsgate since late 2015.

(With IANS inputs)