You better believe it. Hollywood today take zero risk in that department. They rather just clone The Avengers, rinse and repeat.
It's all about family friendly, PG-13 superhero movies right now.
ScarJo takes lead role in GHOST IN THE SHELL
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You better believe it. Hollywood today take zero risk in that department. They rather just clone The Avengers, rinse and repeat.
It's all about family friendly, PG-13 superhero movies right now.
GuitarAtomik
Member
I think she'll work for whatever context they write this. She's probably one of the very few actresses right now with the star power + box office action cred so it makes sense from a studio perspective. I'm way more worried about the script and tone personally. Any adaptation can be screwed up in a multitude of ways during the process, but I feel like GitS is a unique trap where that's exponentially true.
Tawney Bomb
Member
If the movie turns out to bed bad, it won't be her that's the problem, I would hope anyway.
Wiktor
Member
Well..that's you choice. I disagree. Using this logic would rob us of one of the greatest movies of last year.
Plus this is japanese IP. They don't care about whitewashing. This is a nation that made a hit tv show about roman empire and casted only japanese people in browface make ups in it. This isn't like whitewashing black character.
whatever77
Banned
SAC first season's plot is pretty close to the manga anyway. The OVA paid more attention and respect to the manga than the anime movies.
Miles Quaritch
Member
I was thinking exactly this. She has the emotionless robot down pat. First in Under the Skin and then Lucy. This is just a continuation of her role playing characters who require no emoting.
Valkerionseven
Member
Just cause shes asian and has short hair in one movie, does not make her perfect for the role.
Scarlet is a good fit for this universe simply because shes done roles like it, but like others, Asian character, Asian Actress please. I'd be ok with Scar Jo being a body swap for the major, or being an entirely different character in the Ghost universe while the usual cast is the supporting/backbone characters.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
District 9 cost 40 million and had nobody of note in it. It was a pretty goddamned weird sci-fi movie and people still went and saw it.
I don't think the conventional wisdom that says you need to a) be super-fucking-expensive and b) you need recognizable stars to sell a strong concept is all that valid anymore. People don't necessarily go to sci-fi movies because there are famous people in it. They go because they look cool/interesting.
Ghost in the Shell doesn't need to cost 150 million to work. And it doesn't need Scarlett Johannson to pack seats. If you exceute the story well enough, people are going to show up anyway.
Plus we're getting closer and closer to a day where audiences are going to automatically side-eye why white people are being cast as Japanese people in Japanese stories set in Japan, and that's going to start hurting box office as more and more people call "bullshit" on the face of that sorta thing.
One might argue that's part of the reason Exodus faceplanted - but I'm not sure that played as much a role as the fact it just never looked interesting in the first place.
But then again, that goes back to my initial point: So long as you realize the world you're playing in, and you execute the story you're trying to tell, (and marketing doesn't fuck the dog) general audiences are going to come to your movie regardless who the fuck is in it.
I don't think the conventional wisdom that says you need to a) be super-fucking-expensive and b) you need recognizable stars to sell a strong concept is all that valid anymore. People don't necessarily go to sci-fi movies because there are famous people in it. They go because they look cool/interesting.
Ghost in the Shell doesn't need to cost 150 million to work. And it doesn't need Scarlett Johannson to pack seats. If you exceute the story well enough, people are going to show up anyway.
Plus we're getting closer and closer to a day where audiences are going to automatically side-eye why white people are being cast as Japanese people in Japanese stories set in Japan, and that's going to start hurting box office as more and more people call "bullshit" on the face of that sorta thing.
One might argue that's part of the reason Exodus faceplanted - but I'm not sure that played as much a role as the fact it just never looked interesting in the first place.
But then again, that goes back to my initial point: So long as you realize the world you're playing in, and you execute the story you're trying to tell, (and marketing doesn't fuck the dog) general audiences are going to come to your movie regardless who the fuck is in it.
Making the rounds on Twitter, and I agree.
Nah, she doesn't strike me as Motoko AT ALL.
If it has to be set all in "New New York" and everyone have to speak English, they might as well cast Bruce Willis as Motoko, for all i care.
nintendork666
Member
I'll take two tickets please.
Wiktor
Member
Studios rarely make middle budget movies anymore though. And while GITS might work o n medium budget it won't work on a small one.
Plus if you want to go cheap it would better to turn it into TV show. What's the point of making it a movie if you can't deliver breathtaking spectacle?
Fuck this reasoning. All the women lead actresses you mentioned were white and don't tell me that's a coincidence
CassidyIzABeast
Member
bobbychalkers
Member
I've already given up hope for this movie being good but her name better be Madeline Karstens or something else non-Japanese. If they are going to Americanize it, go all the way. If I see Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi in the credits, I will side eye and stale face the entire length of the film.
Pretty sure District 9 was considered small budget compared to Hollywood movies.
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/art...llion_to_some_of_the_directors_other_talents/
Femmeworth
Banned
Explains why the movies turned out so well.
So in GITS there's a small worldbuilding detail about how Major chose a common-looking mass-production type body to help with espionage. Not that we actually ever saw other Major look-alikes but the idea is believable.
I'd like to see them include this little tidbit in the LA movie and make Scarjo play other minor roles as background characters to make it seem like some major corporation designed a body modeled after Scarjo, which is wildly popular among the cyborg public.
I'd like to see them include this little tidbit in the LA movie and make Scarjo play other minor roles as background characters to make it seem like some major corporation designed a body modeled after Scarjo, which is wildly popular among the cyborg public.
This. They can westernize it in regards to the character name and role/government stuff. But the "soul" of the series is the whole politics/tech/etc. stuff. That's what worries me about a live-action Western Production.
GuitarAtomik
Member
They'll set her up as a caucasian in America and 90% of the audience will be none the wiser or care.
Also, I feel like District 9 was kind of an anomaly. I honestly still can't explain that movie's level of success other than it being pretty fresh. We do not live in a world where where every good movie/game/show becomes successful. Great movies bomb all the time.
Like 70% of that graph should be Milla Jovovich
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Rarely isn't never. I'm not saying you're wrong, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a mid-budget sci-fi wouldn't work for Ghost in the Shell. It absolutely could. The upside on a business level is that the ceiling for profit comes down with the budget, too. You don't need it to make 225 domestic to break even now.
Who said you can't deliver spectacle unless you spend 200 mil on your movie? You absolutely can. Again - District 9 did it back in 2009 for 40 mil. Duncan Jones made Moon for $5 that same year. Sure, both those movies were very carefully planned so as to maximize their budget. But it's not impossible or improbable.
Here's the thing with the movie industry: Just because they DON'T do something all the time doesn't mean it can't (or even SHOULDN'T) be done. All it means is that people in the industry aren't doing something. Usually for reasoning that isn't any more thought out than "nobody else is doing this, so I'm scared to do it"
Why couldn't Ghost in the Shell cost 80 mil, star total nobodies, and still work as a film AND as a spectacle?
Shouta
Member
That'd be pretty amusing actually.
Delta Assault
Member
Well, they'll probably completely Westernize the story like they did with All You Need is Kill, so I guess the casting doesn't bother me.
But Saldana has to play someone with blue or green skin.
FO-totality
Poet Centuriate
lol okay would watch that
Would Willis make a good Batou?
Not an anime, but they recently adapted All You Need Is Kill (LN/manga) into Edge of Tomorrow.
At the end of the day this film will be bad because it's not made out of interest in the subject matter.
You need to look at an example like Dredd to see the opposite example, there was clearly some care and understanding put in that movie, despite the (relatively) low budget.
Unfortunately it also bombed massively, so i'm not sure what it proves.
I think as bad as this casting may be, even if they had an asian main actress to play her, it most likely wouldn't have been good, because i don't think they really care to do something interesting.
However, i admit i should wait for a trailer before being this cynical.
Wiktor
Member
And did any of them start their careers as leads in some risky bid budgeted movie? Or got casted in one before gaining big following in earlier movies? Nope. You think that's coincidence?
Nope. You could make a play for casting unknown in big movie if you would already have IP that will bring in the folks to cinemas. That would actually be a nice testing grounds to prove asian or black woman can anchor a big movie.
he's too short to be Batou.
FO-totality
Poet Centuriate
two inches?
Nah, they'll have a new character that is like an hacker (ambiguous bad guy at first) that is an handsome white guy with a leather jacket, and it's also pretty badass in combat.
Probably name Jack or something like that.
GitS can get pretty existential at times. I don't think mainstream Hollywood can pull that off.
Wiktor
Member
But Moon and District 9 are autheur movies. There are people capable of making low budget amazing SF, but those people are most likely going to be using those skills to make their own stuff, not adapt somebody else's stories.
Doc Holliday
SPOILER: Columbus finds America
It's just a personal preference. I like my female action stars to look like they can actually kick ass.
This wouldn't be the start of Rinko's career.
Because it's probably not set in a junkyard, and will probably have more special effects than The Island. Dreamworks is in Transformers mode
Which was fucking amazing, so hopefully they can pull off this.
Arnold baby
There isn't even that much spectacle in GitS.
I mean if you consider the movie, which is the best thing we got out of it yet (more or less) there are like 2 action scenes (that could even be cut, story wise).
The TV series is much more action packed, but also much less interesting and doesn't really go deep into the classic themes of the franchise.
So i don't think they should approach it with the idea of it being great spectacle in the first place.
Akira, as much as i think wouldn't work in Live Action, in much more prone for spectacle, for example.
Although again, Akira today doesn't make much sense, without the culturally rebellious and punk undertones the original had.
Hell ya, even better
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