It’s official: DreamWorks Studios will be making the Live Action Ghost In The Shell Movie!
Steven Spielberg, who recently produced the Live Action Transformers Movie will have some level of involvement (since it’s his studio)
“Ghost in the Shell is one of my favorite stories,” Spielberg said. “It’s a genre that has arrived, and we enthusiastically welcome it to DreamWorks.” – Steven Spielberg
DreamWorks has acquired rights to the Japanese manga “Ghost in the Shell” with plans to adapt the futuristic police thriller as a 3-D live-action feature.
Universal and Sony were also chasing “Ghost in the Shell,” but Steven Spielberg took personal interest in the property and made it happen at DreamWorks.
So what do you think about this news?
See the full story at Variety.com (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117984029.html?categoryid=13&cs=1)
Special thanks to AintItCool.com, where I first saw the story (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/36400)!
Ehh…I’m just not a fan of live-action adaptations overall. Maybe this one will be awesome but I’ll wait until it gets to DVD.
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umm, if this happens and someone serious directs. i think you’ll probably be catching in the theater. i know i will.
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Caitlin – Hopefully it will be awesome…if it’s not to westernized!
jamison – I’ll be there too. It will be interesting to see who they announce for director!
I am excited for this live action adaption of the anime, hopefully someone good directs it and they have a good cast of actors suitable for the anime counterpart they intend to play
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If it turns into something like the Transformers Live Action movie, I’m not interested. Seriously, did they have to insert a ‘love story’ between a hacker and Witwicky, or redo the whole storyline to include more explosions because the Decepticons are blowing up Earth fighters and so forth?
If GITS gets that treatment, I’ll probably end up finding out that Motoko and Batou start making out halfway through the movie, while the Puppet Master starts doing song and dance routines…
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[...] Dreamworks Officially Making Ghost In The Shell Live Action [...]
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This will be made or broken by the choice of actors, especially who will play Mikoto.
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Cliff – Yeah, I think a lot of it will hinge on the actors rather than the effects with Ghost In The Shell.
Haesslich – Hopefully we won’t see any MotokoXBatou, LOL!
P.S. I loved Transformers Live Action Movie! ^_^
ViciousWarGoose – I agree. They have to cast this one perfectly. Hopefully it won’t be anything like Aeon Flux Live Action! Even though Charlize Theron is a great actress, the role wasn’t right for her. Actually, I guess the concept didn’t work well either.
David: This is Hollywood, land of cliches and bland acting. I’d be surprised if they DIDN’T try a Motoko x Batou sex scene to fill time.
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Hmm…I guess James Cameron’s too busy with Avatar and Battle Angel to be involved…
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I died a bit inside when I heard of this.
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Yeah but…Transformers was so cool! It was able to appeal to transformer fans (most of them), and “regular” people that normally wouldn’t watch things like that (i.e. it would be embarrassing if it wasn’t cool). I’m definitely not a mecha fan but I went to see the movie cause the cg transforming was so cool in the trailers.
Yes there’s a potential for a messed up adaptation, but what about the upside? If spielberg does a good job we’ll have a movie with fancy cg that would probably be mainstream (!) and people that wouldn’t have heard of gits otherwise will get exposed to something new.
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susieq: But Michael Bey isn’t involved with this adaptation, and I fear it’ll end up the way Ghost Rider did… rather than how Iron Man probably will. Basically, there’s two types of comic to movie transition types: the type that’s good… and then there’s everything else. Which is just about every comic adaptation out there.
I don’t have high hopes for this appealing to the masses, unless there’s a bunch of Motoko sex scenes, and that isn’t what the series was about even if Shirow enjoys drawing lesbian sex scenes (which would never fly in Hollywood).
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I truly believe that they are not up to the task to preserve GITS.
In order to do that you have to read, breath, and think Japanese.
I do not like GITS because is cute, but because of the deep philosophy
behind that surrounds the characters, and because of the truly insightful and honest way that Shirow tries to imagine the future.
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My gut tells me this movie will be passable, something to go and watch.
But I can’t believe it will be incredible unless they are willing to take a risky move and target it to a particular group (the group that likes GITS) rather than making it accessible to the masses.
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Hopefully Dreamworks will resist the urge to have it set in the United States and actually has the guts to cast some real Japanese actors in it.
Ghost in the Shell doesn’t need ‘movie stars’ to be good…but the studio will probably have them anyway, cause they’ll see it as the only way to get the general public to see it, lol.
Well, I can’t really see anything bad coming from this, providing they stick to the story line and don’t add in sex…also…tachikoma’s…gotaa have them!
If this does go down the toilet, I guess we can kiss ghost in the shell goodbye
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For those worried about a sex scene… when was the last time you actually saw a sex scene in a movie??? Hollywood has given up on sex in lieu of ultra-violence. Limbs exploding graphically is OK now, but people faux-humping are not.
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Steven Spielberg may have done a good job with “Transformers” but to make a live-action adaption of the groundbreaking anime “Ghost in the shell”?!
As others have said in the past: This adaption will either fly to high heavens, or butcher the positive views of Ghost in the shell and anime fans all over the world.
I agree completely with Cliff in saying that the majority of the adaption’s success will be greatly dependent on the actors they choose and the roles they take, but I also agree with David and hope that they don’t westernize it to much. They will be able to keep most of the fans happy if it is still based in Japan.
Overall: If the adaption turns out to be another one of Spielberg’s floating turds in his solid gold toilet, I suppose I could still watch it………….for shits and giggles!
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Gits has three major problems:
- deep characters and storyline
- high expectations (adapted for massive audiences)
- location
I have seen the SAC series and thought that damn, I.G. really knows how to intrigue its fans with good plot twists and deep philosophical issues. Then I thought about how that made me feel, like when I felt good when Section 9 made some progress in the case, and outwitted the bad guys. Then I thought how other similar movies gave me those same feelings. And then, it hit me, Ocean’s 11. E.g. Pitt / Damon / Clooney could fit well for the role of Batou. Hell, even Roberts could play Motoko. Kusanagi is a very deep character, and If Spielberg wants to make it good, they need to have some academy-level cast in there. So combine the smoothness of Oceans 11, with the action / suspense of Bladerunner and the drama of Street Kings, and you might have a blockbuster. The location (set in futuristic Japan) might even not be that big an issue, because the story is actually set in a city that is called: New Port City. This could be like the next Hong Kong, so English speaking citizens would be very common.
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Sounds pretty cool – do you hear that, Hollywood?
Whenever I hear that my favorite cartoon or anime is to be adapted into a live action movie, my heart races, I run and tell everyone I know and I could not be happier that a wider audience will finally be exposed to an idea that I hold near and dear.
However, history suggests that large American production conglomerates are far ineffective in their adaptation of material for a mainstream audience. Honestly, I don’t think this is because the writing, producing and directing talents are not there, it’s not that they can’t be found – it’s just that the Hollywood – mass-media system is just not capable of making it happen.
The few people that usually have the money to buy up big name scripts are well-intentioned and talented individuals, but the truth of it is, even if they are fans, it is unrealistic to expect that they consume media in the same way average fans do. They see the previously completed material as an obstacle, as competition, as incomplete – and they want to bring they’re Movie expertise and million-dollar budgets to complete the work and make it better.
This has ruined Dragon-Ball Z for me, it has de-spirited Avatar: The Last Airbender, and inevitably, it will destroy Ghost in the Shell. Selling to such a big audience in a feature length theater film just does not fit with the character of this show unless it is done precisely and with an understanding that it might fail financially.
But this will not be, they will pump it up with action, violence, sex and neo-technology so that millions upon millions stream into theaters across the nation for it; and in doing so, they will leave out the underlying social, ethical and ontological philosophy that really made the manga, movies and TV series a huge hit with fans.
I agree that a movie needs to be financially viable, but then maybe that’s an argument not to adapt this legendary franchise. However, if you are willing to take on the project, please, I beg you, take a risk and learn what this series really talks about. Don’t leave out the action, sex and tech, but if you really want to make this movie a success, you cannot afford to leave out the philosophy. You simply can not!
Honestly, I never have and probably will not ever read the manga – just not my personal style. But I am such a HUGE fan of the TV Series and the movies. And truthfully, the first movie was not that great as a movie. It is just incredibly difficult to cram so much technological and philosophical setting into ANY movie (it took The Matrix an entire movie to do just that). But the first movie did something incredibly smart, the actual story line is very, very short and they focused on the characters and the philosophy – what is a person? What is the line between intelligence and sentience? These questions, and many more, are what made this movie and the series more than just another anime – those questions made them an epic to behold.
– You CANNOT just repeat any of the movies; they don’t leave room for much improvement – except maybe plot wise (ha-ha). Best bet is to follow the series or the second movie.
– You will have to DUMB IT DOWN! Just be cautious, because the intelligence is what will make or break this movie.
– Don’t be afraid to fail in the box office. Real Fans will show up time and time again for a Real Movie. Trust the Fans of Ghost in the Shell, Trust the Fans of Good Anime, Trust the Fans of Great Movies, and let the “average American” watch it twice before they understand the movie.
I am still so happy that this is getting adapted; I’m still excited that Spielberg is on board with the project; I will still run around and tell everyone I know whenever I hear new developments about the project. But please, please, please – in the name of all Real Fans, don’t screw this up!!
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You are officially my favorite person right now. ^_^
I hope DreamWorks will be able to do the live adaptation the right way. Ghost in the Shell is the best anime/manga story ever!
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