His counterpart in the American film, James Turner: a seasoned Seattle detective, is portrayed by Shea Whigham and is the father of Light Turner: the American adaptation of Light Yagami. This version of the character is a widowed and experienced Seattle police detective and Light's father, who has a deeply ingrained sense of justice, is still reeling from the death of his wife in a hit and run incident, with the person responsible being bailed from the trial, and has a close yet somewhat strained relationship with his son, as demonstrated when Light refuses to kill his father when he appears in a television broadcast where he publicly humiliates "Kira", and is unaware of his son's dual life as an infamous god-like serial-killer named "Kira", who is massacring numerous known law-offenders around the world, through the utilization of a cursed supernatural notebook known as the "Death Note", with James refusing to believe in the possibility that his son could be "Kira". He is also appointed as the local head of the "Kira" investigation in Seattle and is eventually assisted by an enigmatic and esteemed international consulting detective known as L, who correctly surmises Kira's location within Seattle. Unlike the manga, he is somewhat doubtful of L's deductions and observations and even engages in open conflict against L, when he suspects and attempts to attack Light, out of suspicion that he is "Kira", which eventually boils down to the point that James issues an arrest warrant and manhunt for L, who decides to hunt down Light, after L's handler/foster-father: Watari is seemingly murdered by "Kira". However, by the end of the film, James is eventually horrified to find out that Light is true "Kira", after finding out evidence pointing towards Light being responsible for the murder of his mother's killer, who was his first victim. After Light reveals how he had committed his murders and cleared himself of being "Kira" and tries to convince his father that what he did was the "lesser of two evils", James asks him if what he did was really a good thing either, while elsewhere, L finds a hidden page of the Death Note and contemplates writing Light's name in it.