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[Kinyou]

But who cares about Ghost in the Shell at this point? Maybe if this was the late 90s, but now the franchise is basically irrelevant in American culture.

They could just call the movie Cyber Cops or something and do just as well, without annoying the one fanbase that would actually care about GitS and without having to pay any licensing fees either.

I'm not sure about the why either, but apparently someone in Hollywood thinks that people want to see a Ghost in the Shell live action movie.
In Japan they made a remake of Eastwood's Unforgiven. I have no idea what demographic that movie had in mind either

 

[Tesseract]

I'm okay with ScarJo, but GITS is my all-time favorite anime film, so I have extremely high expectations. Which I doubt this will meet, so...

you must believe, boy

 

[firehawk12]

Are you gonna let Hollywood whitewash Cyber Cops too?
You monster!

http://teleguiado.portalvox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2013/12/35049.jpg

There are no new titles left, it seems. lol

I'm not sure about the why either, but apparently someone in Hollywood thinks that people want to see a Ghost in the Shell live action movie.
Someone else thought we wanted a Total Recall remake.

I suppose at some point, they're running out of nerd stuff to adapt. I figure we're due for a Matrix reboot sooner rather than later.

 

[Jarmel]

That argument is just silly. Why adapt Transformer to the big screen? It's not 100% the same as the original.

I have zero faith in the director. It's a clear cash grab.

 

[Black-Wind]

Why even adapt Ghost in the Shell? Why not just make some generic cyberpunk thing at that point?

Could simply be because Spielberg likes GITS and instead of making a rip off he wanted to make an actual American telling of the a story in the series or in that setting/ world. Just so happens thaaaaat ... there's no Asian Women with the star power to drive this fucker to town and GITS aint big enuff to pick a random no-name to roll the dice on.

Why should that stop them from making their own version/ story? Hell, for all we know this could be like All you need is Kill (where the source Material gives us an awesome world of lore to build from but ultimately it's an Americanized version of the story with many changes ... that turns out awesome anyway) or it could just be a story set IN that world but with different characters taking place somewhere else (We still don't know if this is the case or not. I would say that's the easiest way to make actual fans happy and deflect white washing backlash ... just tell the story of completely different characters living in that world).

 

[Professor Renegade]

This is Ghost in the Shell we're talking about here. It needs to be at least on par with Blade Runner in terms of the cybernetics and transhumanism if it wants to have a chance of being remotely successful.

 

[Kinyou]

This is Ghost in the Shell we're talking about here. It needs to be at least on par with Blade Runner in terms of the cybernetics and transhumanism if it wants to have a chance of being remotely successful.

I think what it mostly needs is a kind of slowness and thoughtfulness to the scenes. Even the Tank fight in the original movie had something meditative about it. But I doubt that's something we'll see in a Hollywood movie. The tank fight will probably be scored with dubstep and instead of one tank she fights twenty

 

[Sent]

I'm okay with ScarJo, but GITS is my all-time favorite anime film, so I have extremely high expectations. Which I doubt this will meet, so...

100% sure this will ruin it (and my childhood).

 

[bobawesome]

Ugh. Why is this even happening in the first place?

 

[Broank]

Ah Major Molly Kus...ynski?

It's just going to be a bland pg13 action shoot-em up isn't it.

 

[Professor Renegade]

I think what it mostly needs is a kind of slowness and thoughtfulness to the scenes. Even the Tank fight in the original movie had something meditative about it. But I doubt that's something we'll see in a Hollywood movie. The tank fight will probably be scored with dubstep and instead of one tank she fights twenty

Agreed, there were a lot of scenes in the original where you could just stop and appreciate what's being shown, but part of that was due to the art and animation. I think that it's going to be much harder to accomplish those kinds of scenes in live action because they're more than likely going to have to supplement all of the tech portions with CGI.

 

[whatever77]

I have zero faith in the director. It's a clear cash grab.

I agree, they should cast Miley Cyrus/Seth Rogan as Motoko/Batou and hire PTSW Anderson to direct it.

 

[firehawk12]

Could simply be because Spielberg likes GITS and instead of making a rip off he wanted to make an actual American telling of the a story in the series or in that setting/ world. Just so happens thaaaaat ... there's no Asian Women with the star power to drive this fucker to town and GITS aint big enuff to pick a random no-name to roll the dice on.

Why should that stop them from making their own version/ story? Hell, for all we know this could be like All you need is Kill (where the source Material gives us an awesome world of lore to build from but ultimately it's an Americanized version of the story with many changes ... that turns out awesome anyway) or it could just be a story set IN that world but with different characters taking place somewhere else (We still don't know if this is the case or not. I would say that's the easiest way to make actual fans happy and deflect white washing backlash ... just tell the story of completely different characters living in that world).

Well, at least according to earlier reports last year, and to reply to this comment...

Ah Major Molly Kus...ynski?

It's just going to be a bland pg13 action shoot-em up isn't it.

http://www.avclub.com/article/ghost-shell-abandons-host-body-more-famous-host-bo-210655
"The name of her character has presumably been changed from Motoko Kusanagi to Montana Kristofferson, script revisions pending", so they're going out of their way to Americanize everything yet also keep in line with the anime/manga?

If you apparently like GitS, why would you go out of your way to basically strip everything away except the fact that the Major is a woman?

I mean, this is like Ridley Scott saying that he had to cast white people in his Moses film because no one would go watch it otherwise. Like, what?

 

[Opto]

The entire cast is Asian in the source material, it's set in a fictional city modelled on Hong Kong but with Japanese influences. There's a very high probability (99.9999999999999%) that this film will be set in the United States, not in Asia, since it's a Hollywood film. There is no direct 1:1 guide on how to change a cast of Japanese people into a cast of American people, but we would generally agree that if you did a remake of a foreign film which transposes the setting, you aren't required to make all of the actors the same ethnicity as the actors in the original film unless it's somehow important to the story.

I guess if you wanted to be totally authentic you'd just set it in Japan and have a full cast of Japanese actors. But nobody really expected anything like that to come out of an American adaptation.

If it's set in America, it can still have lead asian characters like Big Hero 6.

 

[NimbusD]

Bro Blade was great.

For every blade there's 3ish awful 90s batman movies.

 

[Nuklear]

I'm okay with ScarJo, but GITS is my all-time favorite anime film, so I have extremely high expectations. Which I doubt this will meet, so...

Live Action anime... expectations should be zero. Hell it should in the negatives. This anime shouldn't be made into a live action movie. Keanu can't be far behind for this movie?

 

[Opto]

Why should the race of the Major matter so much if it's set in America. To turn the black James Bond argument around, what aspect of the major is defined by her race?

Are you not at all listening to the severe issues of representation. You can't turn the argument around because one group is barely visible while the other has the king's share of roles.

 

[Shouta]

Mobile Armoured Riot Police!

 

[Nostremitus]

Are you not at all listening to the severe issues of representation. You can't turn the argument around because one group is barely visible while the other has the king's share of roles.

Women are leads in a lot of action films?

 

[Black-Wind]

"The name of her character has presumably been changed from Motoko Kusanagi to Montana Kristofferson, script revisions pending", so they're going out of their way to Americanize everything yet also keep in line with the anime/manga?

I read that line as a joke ... just like the cringe worthy first part of that post.
And again, "presumably". For all we know the reason Scarjo has only just now committed to the movie is because they changed something.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

you must believe, boy

I only just now noticed the leathery facehugger crawling out of that old woman's shirt on the left of the .gif

 

[Opto]

Women are leads in a lot of action films?

Did I state otherwise

 

[BeatResetsTheWorld]

Why should the race of the Major matter so much if it's set in America. To turn the black James Bond argument around, what aspect of the major is defined by her race?

You can't turn it around, and it's ignorant to think you can. There are tons of white roles and, minority roles replaced by white roles, and hell, even minority roles where they're like "fuck it, let's just give this white person a tan and call it a day"

 

[Fjordson]

I'm not sure about the why either, but apparently someone in Hollywood thinks that people want to see a Ghost in the Shell live action movie.
In Japan they made a remake of Eastwood's Unforgiven. I have no idea what demographic that movie had in mind either

I actually saw that Unforgiven. Loved it. Ken Watanabe was especially great.

I'm not seeing a big deal with this. Remakes of source material from other countries happens all the time. And I think ScarJo could do really well here.

Concern is if the writer and director are up to snuff. Rupert Sanders did Snow White and the Huntsman and I actually thought that was fairly well directed. Zero clue who this writer is, though.

 

[GrayFoxPL]

 

[genjiZERO]

You can't turn it around, and it's ignorant to think you can. There are tons of white roles and, minority roles replaced by white roles, and hell, even minority roles where they're like "fuck it, let's just give this white person a tan and call it a day"

Also, GitS is literally from the mouth of Masamune himself about futurism from the perspective of Shintoism. Unlike Edge of Tomorrow, it's a specifically Japanese story. Without that quality it's simply the shell without the ghost.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

I must have ended up in Bizzaro world today.

The English dub for SAC is fucking horrible.
Especially McGlynn as Motoko.

To be honest though, i just don't like the English VA in either the movie or SAC.
I usually watch them in Italian or Japanese.

WTF, i'd say the Dub is one of the few that are miles better than the Japanese.
DBZ as another example.

If it's set in America, it can still have lead asian characters like Big Hero 6.

Big Hero 6 was not set in or based on regular America. It was a fictional fusion of San Francisco and Tokyo

 

[whatever77]

Also, GitS is literally from the mouth of Masamune himself about futurism from the perspective of Shintoism. Unlike Edge of Tomorrow, it's a specifically Japanese story. Without that quality it's simply the shell without the ghost.

There is no one ounce of Japanese characteristic in Masamune's character designs. I don't care what incoherent scribble he wrote on the margins of the pages.

 

[RedSwirl]

If this does get off the ground, I at least want the teaser trailer to somewhat resemble the beginning of this video (NSFW): http://vimeo.com/96559833

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.

In parts of the canon it's even implied she may or may not have been born male, and simply chose a female cyber body, having lost all sense of conventional gender identity.

I really want a new Cyberpunk/Tech Noir push in Hollywood.

Then we can see a Neuromancer flick get the green light.

See this is the thing. I'd actually love for a new cyberpunk movie to be made. Just not this one.

The best I was hoping for was something that's basically Ghost in the Shell in all but name where Hollywood could take liberties with the plot without pissing on the actual property. Once again, I guess The Matrix is that movie.

 

[Haly]

In parts of the canon it's even implied she may or may not have been born male, and simply chose a female cyber body, having lost all sense of conventional gender identity.

Yes. If nothing else, I want this movie to push the idea of a society on the brink of becoming post-sex/post-gender. That was easily one of the most significant contributions of GitS to sci-fi and cyberpunk.

 

[Nostremitus]

Did I state otherwise

You alluded that ScarJo represents a demographic that gets the king's share of roles. So, yes you did. Women in general are greatly underrepresented as action leads. She's not a white male. Your argument would be valid if they changed the name to Mark Krause and cast Sam Worthington.

 

[whatever77]

I really want a new Cyberpunk/Tech Noir push in Hollywood.

Then we can see a Neuromancer flick get the green light.

And I am fancasting Scarjo as Molly and JGL as Case now. Armitage=Keanu. This will be Cyberpunk GOAT

 

[Cagey]

The entire cast is Asian in the source material, it's set in a fictional city modelled on Hong Kong but with Japanese influences. There's a very high probability (99.9999999999999%) that this film will be set in the United States, not in Asia, since it's a Hollywood film. There is no direct 1:1 guide on how to change a cast of Japanese people into a cast of American people, but we would generally agree that if you did a remake of a foreign film which transposes the setting, you aren't required to make all of the actors the same ethnicity as the actors in the original film unless it's somehow important to the story.

I guess if you wanted to be totally authentic you'd just set it in Japan and have a full cast of Japanese actors. But nobody really expected anything like that to come out of an American adaptation.

Did The Departed get this level of flack?

 

[Kinyou]

Are you not at all listening to the severe issues of representation. You can't turn the argument around because one group is barely visible while the other has the king's share of roles.

You can't turn it around, and it's ignorant to think you can. There are tons of white roles and, minority roles replaced by white roles, and hell, even minority roles where they're like "fuck it, let's just give this white person a tan and call it a day"

The point of the argument is that there's no inherent story reason that the Major has to be Asian. I mean, there's no reason for Batou to be white either.
If you say she should be Asian because Asians get so few roles, OK, but that's a different argument then what I was talking about since it basically can be applied to almost every casting choice in movies

 

[Technosteve]

Did The Departed get this level of flack?

the departed was a bad film

 

[Opto]

The point of the argument is that there's no inherent story reason that the Major has to be Asian. I mean, there's no reason for Batou to be white either.
If you say she should be Asian because Asians get so few roles, OK, but that's a different argument then what I was talking about since it basically can be applied to almost every casting choice in movies

This is some splitting hairs nonsense just to justify hollywood racism.

 

[diaspora]

the departed was a bad film

It was an excellent film, not being Infernal Affairs doesn't make a movie bad.

 

[Haly]

And anime is a lot more popular here (gaf) than HK cinema.

 

[Mr.Swag]

the departed was a bad film

Lol

 

[genjiZERO]

There is no one ounce of Japanese characteristic in Masamune's character designs. I don't care what incoherent scribble he wrote on the margins of the pages.

Can you explain more? I'm not sure what you mean. I understand what you mean by incoherent scibble, but I'm not sure how that relates to his character designs or how that negates my point that it's a specifically Japanese story.

To use a book parallel, Kokoro by Soseki couldn't properly be Americanized because it's also about a specifically Japanese way of looking at things and it would certainly lose it's point if it was.

GitS isn't merely about futurism or transhumanism it's about animism and the idea that all things are alive whether we normally think of them that way or not.

 

[Opto]

The story reason is that their names are Japanese and they're in a Japanese setting and they work for the Japanese government and they're in a story called Ghost in the Shell, a japanese work.

 

[Savitar]

I have no problem with this.

 

[Tesseract]

The story reason is that their names are Japanese and they're in a Japanese setting and they work for the Japanese government and they're in a story called Ghost in the Shell, a japanese work.

eh, that's just a bunch of silly nouns and adjectives

rekt_#bbq

 

[Slermy]

They can probably write it so she works but it would've been a great chance to show off a good Asian actress. =(

There are way more opportunities for white female actresses in Hollywood than Asian ones.

Exactly! What a missed opportunity. I guess they want a big name to attract interest.

Today's Hollywood + Ghost in the Shell?

Yeah, that's not gonna work.

I had never noticed before, but only his left eye blinks. It's kinda freaking me out.

 

[doyoueven]

Another white person portraying an ethnic minority. The white washing of Hollywood has to stop.

 

[MisterNugNug]

Major

Spoiler

T & A

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

I love the viscous cycle of institutionalized racism

-Its not racist, its business
-Sorry there aren't any Asian(or any minority) actresses that are bankable
-We need a bankable proven big budget actress/actor to get funding
-We cant risk big budget movie on a small name
-How come there isnt any Well known big budget Asian actor/actresses????

 

[watershed]

With just about every ScarJo role, I feel like I have already seen the performance before even watching the movie. She is extremely predictable to the point of boredom.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

The story reason is that their names are Japanese and they're in a Japanese setting and they work for the Japanese government and they're in a story called Ghost in the Shell, a japanese work.

They won't have Japanese names or be in a Japanese setting working for the Japanese government in this version of the story. It will have been adapted to a US setting (I don't think we have total confirmation of this but it's extremely probable). Take some steps back here. There is more going on than "Asians are being replaced by white people". You have to consider whether the idea of taking a foreign story and transposing its setting is ever appropriate. And in your answer, please consider the vast array of films that are remakes of foreign films that do transpose their setting, not only in the context of Hollywood, but also of foreign remakes of American films, or Indian films derived from British stage plays set in Italy, or innumerable other combinations.

 

[Finaika]

As an Asian I am offended.