DreamWorks has announced they have acquired rights to make a film of Ghost in the Shell. The movie will also reportedly be filmed in 3D, like James Cameron is filming his current movie, Avatar. The movie will be produced by Avi Arad, former head of Marvel Studios, and will be written by Steven Koss, writer of the recently released Street Kings. No release window has been given.Originally a manga by Shirow Masamune, it became an anime movie as well, which was uber-popular in Japan and in the U.S. Another anime movie, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, was released in 2004. There were also two anime TV series, Stand Alone Complex, and 2nd Gig, which have been released in the U.S. in 2005 and 2006. The anime movie in particular has become a signature of anime in North America.
The original manga told the story of Major Motoko Kusanagi, working in 2029 Newport City for Section 9, a division of public security. Section 9 investigates cyber-crimes, that is, criminal activity involving cyborgs and network technologies. Every member of Section 9 was a cyborg except for Togusa. They began to investigate a strange entity calling itself the Puppeteer, who, when captured, gave the the ominous explanation 'I am a life form, spontaneously born from the sea of information'. The first volume also had the tag line 'In a world where the human mind can be programmed like a computer, at what point does the human soul end and the cybernetic machinery begin?'
Don't... ask me what the second volume is about... I honestly... have no idea...
My thoughts about this: I'm not that big of a Ghost in the Shell fan. The manga are almost IMPOSSIBLE to understand, and it probably is impossible to have a 100% accurate interpretation of them, especially the second volume. The anime movie I found to be waaaaaaay overrated. It has very beautiful imagery, and is excellently constructed. I suppose you could call it an artistic masterpiece in that regard. Except for the characters themselves; not only do they not resemble Shirow's characters, which is okay, but...they're UGLY. Look at Kusanagi; she's UGLY in that movie. The TV series also disappointed me. They don't really seem to have much of a true point, and don't seem very Shirow-esque, although almost none of the anime based off any of his works feel Shirow-esque, unfortunately...
This could potentially be a decent movie (unlike, say Dragon Ball... Auy…). You can't say that about very much manga/anime; they tend to only be best as... just manga and/or anime. But only if it's handled properly. I unfortunately don't have very much hope that it WILL be handled that well. I'm sure they'll do things like, make it take place in North America somewhere, and have mostly American people... even though Newport City IS a part of JAPAN in the story. You know, crap like that.
I can't say I'm immediately that excited about it, but we'll just have to wait and see.
2 Comments:
I’m not a Ghost in the Shell fan either. I watched the movie years ago but don’t remember much. Akira had a bigger impact on me. Still, this live-action version could be interesting to watch with today’s visual effects.
Oh it has a lot of potential, for sure. And it certainly can be made well when in the right hands.
But I have a lot of concerns. A lot. First of all, even thoguht the comics are...almost impossible to really grasp and understand fully, I'm afraid that this movie will probably be really, really dumbed down. The SAC anime TV series were not dumbed down at all, and they still made it kind of work. But again, I was disappointed with the TV shows because they didn't seem Shirow-ish enough. And that's often what happens when an anime based on one of his works is made...
I definitely have no doubt that a GitS movie will be FAR from feeling like something Masamune Shirow created, unfortunately. People in Hollywood...just don't care, overall, it seems.
So there is a lot of potential for this movie, but it likely will not be met. I fear for it...
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