Shane Black (writer of Lethal Weapon, The Monster Squad, The Long Kiss Goodnight and director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) is both awesome and on a commercial career high pending the release of his 2nd directorial effort, Iron Man 3. But that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten about helming a U.S. remake of the Japanese classic Death Note.

While he doesn’t give a ton of info, he tells Bleeding Cool, “Right now I’ve got this thing at Warner Bros. called Death Note that I like a lot. It’s a Japanese Manga that’s very tense and really cool.” Not much, but not dead either. A few years back Black was overseeing a script by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry – I’m not sure if that configuration is still in play.

Written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, Death Note was originally published in Japan and later collected in 12 trade paperbacks that have sold more than 38 million copies worldwide. The protagonist, Light, is a bright student who stumbles across a mystical notebook that has the power to kill any person whose name he writes in it. Light decides to launch a secret crusade to rid the streets of criminals. Soon, the student-turned-vigilante finds himself pursued by a famous FBI criminal profiler known only by the alias L.