Adam Wingard was with Death Note when it initially was set up at Warner Bros. He explains that they knew the story had to be rated R from the get-go, and admits that the major studio potentially got cold feet about the material as they got closer to production. A movie about teenage kids using a supernatural notebook to kill a bunch of people tends to do that. Wingard told us that he started to hear rumors about possible budget cuts on the project, or a push to make Death Note PG-13 -- both of which would have been incredibly damaging for his vision. Wingard admits he thought the movie was dead in the water. But in a case of being at the right place at the right time, Netflix stepped in, looking for movies that have a mainstream appeal, that don't do it in a mainstream sort of way. Wingard told us: