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DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures have announced that the production has began for the live-action Ghost in the Shell film, starring Scarlett Johansson (Lucy, Avengers: Age of Ultron) and directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman). The film is shooting in Wellington, New Zealand. The film will be produced by Steven Paul (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance), Avi Arad (The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2, Iron Man), Ari Arad (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance). Michael Costigan (Prometheus), Tetsu Fujimura (Tekken), Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, whose animation studio Production I.G produced the Japanese Ghost in the Shell fmovie and television series, and Jeffrey Silver (300, Edge of Tomorrow) will executive produce.
Oh yeah because those names JUST FILL ME WITH CONFIDENCE...aside from Avi Arad, and Mitsuhisa of course.
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I feel like the franchise has been in decline for a bit of time now, at least from the perspective of film and television. I suppose it could be seen as a service that they're committing to stamping out any remaining hope I may have for GitS.
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Anyway first still from the shoot.
I await Freehold's comments on this thread.
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{foams at the mouth over GitS desecration}
I am super excited and good or bad I will be adding this to my Blu-ray collection. But if someone from IG is on hand I am sure they won't let it get bad.
Always thought it was a better idea than product (the anime adaptations, anyway, having not read the manga), but still am interested, I guess. If it turns out cool, cool.
Also, I'm not usually the sort to get upset over casting diversity and all, but ScarJo's casting strikes me as kinda disappointing at just about every level.
Why are people so upset about ScarJo? She is a HUGE action star. Her name alone will fill seats in the theater. I would much rather they keep ScarJo and have a big success with this franchise than use a less known asian actress and risk the movie having a bad launch dooming the franchise.
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Why are people so upset about ScarJo? She is a HUGE action star. Her name alone will fill seats in the theater. I would much rather they keep ScarJo and have a big success with this franchise than use a less known asian actress and risk the movie having a bad launch dooming the franchise.
People are upset because they took a thoroughly Japanese story set in Japan told through Japanese characters and mainly cast non-Japanese actors without even bothering to change the characters' names. They could have adapted the Laughing Man story by setting it in an alternate universe. There even is precedent within Ghost in the Shell lore, as the series and movies only share characters and themes.
There is also the question that if the filmakers can't even be arsed to remain faithful to the original in casting, how can they faithfully adapt the rest of the material in its complexity to a live-action version?
Nothing against Johansson; she's good, as are a lot of the other actors. But this white-washing nonsense has to stop. I'm getting tired of always seeing the same type of face on the screen. Rinko Kikuchi would have been a better choice for the role of Major Kusanagi, for example.
As for financial success: I couldn't care less. The franchise is not doomed; Arise just came out last year. It wasn't as good as Stand Alone Complex, but good enough.
Is that an issue both ways for you Fabius? Are you upset that Idris Elba will be playing Roland in the Dark Tower?
I'm of two minds about this. First I'm not a huge fan of either of the GITS movies, they're okay but not good enough to be deified in the anime circles as much as they are. The two SAC series however I feel are really, REALLY well done and get across the ideas of identity and transhumanism better than what was attempted in both movies.
Which brings me to my next issue, one of the BIGGEST themes of GITS is identity and transhumanism. Is your body who you really are or is it your consciousness or ghost? There was a long time during my first viewing of the series where I thought that Mokoto may have actually been a man in a woman's cyborg body. I mean I was wrong about that but my whole point is that the bodies as souped up and cyber as they are are just shells. Hence the title of the show, GHOST IN THE SHELL.
The fact that Scarlett Johanson is playing a character named Mokoto Kusangi in a movie where the bodies can be made to order with whatever enhancements and features you can afford or desire makes me a little more understanding of the whitewashing that's being done here. As long as it's something that tangentially addressed in the movie itself at some point. Especially when in the real world asians eschewing their natural facial features in favor of more European looking ones is a real thing that happens in OUR actual world.
Here's the thing: I've read the entire Dark Tower series, and assuming that a guy named Roland who's a gunslinger felt so natural that I'm honestly not sure that Stephen King ever states Roland's race, but given the way the world has moved on, with witches living in mountain cabins next to ancient-but-functioning oil pumps known as "the Citgo," Roland being played by Elba doesn't bug me.
But given every single picture we've seen of Major Kira up until now in both manga and anime, casting Johanson in the role contradicts Masamune Shirow's character; Elba playing Roland doesn't bother me, but if he'd been cast as Li Mu Bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon it just wouldn't work for me.
Johansson would make a pretty good Duenan, though.
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Johansson would make a pretty good Duenan, though.
D00D YES.
Or Saoirse Ronan!!
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How the Idris as James Bond run of things that came up during the Sony hack then? That was viewed as completely acceptable and tended to get calls of racism against those who felt that changing his race wasn't in keeping with the character.
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And that's my disconnect here. I don't typically get up in arms over casting choices in movies or TV. But when I see an uproar over a casting choice because the source character is x and the casting choice is y. But then when the character is Y and the casting isn't its fine and all kinds of reasons are listed as acceptable. I just look for consistency in people and it bugs me.
I avoid anything written by Stephen King, so I have no opinion on the Dark Tower.
I also don't think that a black James Bond would be against the character. Why should it be? Is he intrinsically white?
Well, there was Joey Louis during WWII. Heavy weight champion boxer.
JOE Louis.
Yes and there still was a large number of the white population who still saw him as less than human because of the color of his skin.
Your point?
You look for absolute consistency without looking at all the variables. Sometimes race lifts are unimportant. Sometimes they are not. Differing factors.
I do try to look at factors but too often I see the arguement that Asian character in an Asian Setting written by Asian's better damn well be Asian. But then see the same people call someone racist for saying that a European Character, and I clearly mean a white guy just so we don't get into the fact that yes not everyone from Europe is a white guy, in a European Setting Written by a European, should be European.
Now if your arguement is that an actor/ress isn't gonna work for the role because of reasons besides they aren't the right Ethnicity, then those reasons are just as valid for why one is the right choice.
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Why are people so upset about ScarJo? She is a HUGE action star. Her name alone will fill seats in the theater. I would much rather they keep ScarJo and have a big success with this franchise than use a less known asian actress and risk the movie having a bad launch dooming the franchise.
People are upset because they took a thoroughly Japanese story set in Japan told through Japanese characters and mainly cast non-Japanese actors without even bothering to change the characters' names. They could have adapted the Laughing Man story by setting it in an alternate universe. There even is precedent within Ghost in the Shell lore, as the series and movies only share characters and themes.
There is also the question that if the filmakers can't even be arsed to remain faithful to the original in casting, how can they faithfully adapt the rest of the material in its complexity to a live-action version?
Nothing against Johansson; she's good, as are a lot of the other actors. But this white-washing nonsense has to stop. I'm getting tired of always seeing the same type of face on the screen. Rinko Kikuchi would have been a better choice for the role of Major Kusanagi, for example.
As for financial success: I couldn't care less. The franchise is not doomed; Arise just came out last year. It wasn't as good as Stand Alone Complex, but good enough.
Arise unfortunately WASN'T good enough. Arise was supposed to be a 6 episode OVA but failed to get enough funding to make more than 4 episodes. Talk was that the setting of GitS was dead and soon to be buried. Then out of the blue the American's start a live action movie project and suddenly funding is restored Arise got completed as a TV show instead of an OVA and the setting is once again on people's minds. THIS is why it is important that the live action movie succeed because interest in IT is what is keeping the entire setting alive right now. If a major actress like ScarJo can do the role justice (and I believe she is one of the best people out there who CAN... certainly not Ming Na who we have seen in Agents of SHIELD.) In fact if ANYONE can elevate this production from obscurity it is Scarlett Johansson.
BUT it's whitewashing! So what. I would rather the better actor or actress fill a role than the one with the approved race. Just look at what amazing work Samuel Jackson did as Nick Fury (a white part played by a black actor).
There were a lot of great things about Arise but I feel that in the end it suffered from the same problem of Solid State Society. Mainly that it's become clear that the franchise would rather play on variations of the same plot and run it into the ground instead of coming up with new situations for the Major and her team.
As for ScarJo, my main concern with the apparent pandering to North American audiences with this choice is that they really don't care about what GitS is about and will end up making a pure action film without any of the heart that previous installments of the franchise have had.
I do try to look at factors but too often I see the arguement that Asian character in an Asian Setting written by Asian's better damn well be Asian. But then see the same people call someone racist for saying that a European Character, and I clearly mean a white guy just so we don't get into the fact that yes not everyone from Europe is a white guy, in a European Setting Written by a European, should be European.You look for absolute consistency without looking at all the variables. Sometimes race lifts are unimportant. Sometimes they are not. Differing factors.
Just to be clear, you're counting the Dark Tower world as a "European setting"?
No Bond not Dark Tower sorry should have specified.
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Just look at what amazing work Samuel Jackson did as Nick Fury (a white part played by a black actor).
Just have to note here Ultimate Universe Fury is a black guy.
I'd put an advert somewhere in the movie promoting a new series of bodies available using proprietary trademarked appearance bought from Scralet J. Estate.
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Wait, there's 25th anniversary edition of Ghost in the Shell?
I feel old, and wish a cyborg body was available.
People are upset because they took a thoroughly Japanese story set in Japan told through Japanese characters and mainly cast non-Japanese actors without even bothering to change the characters' names. They could have adapted the Laughing Man story by setting it in an alternate universe. There even is precedent within Ghost in the Shell lore, as the series and movies only share characters and themes.
There is also the question that if the filmakers can't even be arsed to remain faithful to the original in casting, how can they faithfully adapt the rest of the material in its complexity to a live-action version?
Nothing against Johansson; she's good, as are a lot of the other actors. But this white-washing nonsense has to stop. I'm getting tired of always seeing the same type of face on the screen. Rinko Kikuchi would have been a better choice for the role of Major Kusanagi, for example.
As for financial success: I couldn't care less. The franchise is not doomed; Arise just came out last year. It wasn't as good as Stand Alone Complex, but good enough.
Arise unfortunately WASN'T good enough. Arise was supposed to be a 6 episode OVA but failed to get enough funding to make more than 4 episodes. Talk was that the setting of GitS was dead and soon to be buried. Then out of the blue the American's start a live action movie project and suddenly funding is restored Arise got completed as a TV show instead of an OVA and the setting is once again on people's minds. THIS is why it is important that the live action movie succeed because interest in IT is what is keeping the entire setting alive right now. If a major actress like ScarJo can do the role justice (and I believe she is one of the best people out there who CAN... certainly not Ming Na who we have seen in Agents of SHIELD.) In fact if ANYONE can elevate this production from obscurity it is Scarlett Johansson.
BUT it's whitewashing! So what. I would rather the better actor or actress fill a role than the one with the approved race. Just look at what amazing work Samuel Jackson did as Nick Fury (a white part played by a black actor).
I wasn't aware that they had trouble financing Arise. That sucks.
I suspect Johansson's presence alone will not help much, though. GitS may be pretty high profile for an anime in the Western world, but the movie came out 21 years ago. I don't think that most people know either the series or the sequel. It's not exactly a household name. I doubt that the screenwriters and the director have the experience to turn this into a success.
Holy bejesus, I just realized I typed "Major Kira" earlier when I meant "Major Kusanagi"; that's a nerd f**k-up of the highest order!
. . .
Seriously, this is worse than the time the president talked about a Jedi mind meld.
Holy bejesus, I just realized I typed "Major Kira" earlier when I meant "Major Kusanagi"; that's a nerd f**k-up of the highest order!
. . .
Seriously, this is worse than the time the president talked about a Jedi mind meld.
No it's not.
Of course, the fact that Elba actually is from the UK would have given the Bond casting yet another wrinkle.
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I never liked Ghost in the Shell but I'm going to weigh in on the "When is it okay to change race" discussion because I can.
It's not like this is an exact science, but generally speaking there's a few checkboxes you need to fill out before changing a character's race (or appearance in general).
1.) How iconic is that appearance to the character? Let's pick something that isn't specifically race for our first example. Like, making Superman blond would be f*&+ing weird, yo.
so 2.) What is your reason for doing this? What does it add to the story? If the answer is "I like blonde people better", please go back to the drawing board. If it's, say, so he fits the aesthetic for this alternate universe piece I'm doing better, then it may be worth it.
3.) How important is this race or background to the character? How much ancillary material needs to change to make this work? Making Danny Rand Asian basically destroys his entire character background. Making Heimdall black is...whatever. What does it change about him? Of course that fails in the #2 spot (and arguably #1), but hey, maybe it works with:
4.) Is the overwhelmingly better actor another race? I can maybe see it if everyone else was just trash at the audition (but for a big budget production this is probably indicative or much larger problems that will likely make your project fail to begin with).
There's some others but you get the idea. There's a lot of factors that go into determining when and why a "racelift" can be acceptable.
Casting Scarlet Johansson (an already overexposed and frankly mediocre actress) in the role of a character she clearly does not look like, when there are many, many other talented actresses that fit the aesthetic better is a questionable call.
Making Idris Elba James Bond (a character who is, arguably, not even A character, but multiple people bearing the same numeric designation for MI6) is not a big deal. It changes nothing about the character or continuity, and the man is a talented actor in his own right.And given the first on-screen Bond was f#*~ing SCOTTISH, and clearly sounds like it the milk was already spilled.