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NEWS: Production I.G. Enters Negotiations for Live-Action Ghost In The Shell


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Meccanica



Joined: 19 Nov 2006
Posts: 101
Location: Brookline, MA
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:00 pm Reply with quote
Oh, snap!

I'm gonna go with optimism on this one. I think GitS is a good candidate for the movie treatment (provided the right people are involved, but that's a given). It's always seemed to me like a very American-accessible show, if you know what I mean. It's not based on any uniquely Japanese concepts- or at least not obscure ones. It doesn't feature any high-pitched moé female characters. It doesn't have any silly / stupid humor. Instead of these things, it has high-tech weaponry, cyborgs, computers, and tall shiny buildings.
These are all superficial aspects which are common and easily marketable to the general (non-anime-watching) American public. The only problem I foresee would be the Hollywood People trying too hard to make it into a Hollywood Action Movie, in order to target that same demographic- messing with or cutting out the stuff that makes GitS what it is. You know, the talky-thinky philosophical parts. I'm hoping you know what I mean, because I'm giving up on trying to describe it.

This movie's level of kickassitude will probably be contingent on how much they listen to the Production I.G. folks, and how well the people at I.G. get the message across. Of course, it would also be nice if everyone has actually seen / read GitS stuff before.

With all that said, it's merely optimism. Maybe if I want it hard enough, it will turn out that way?

Oh, and the Tachikoma / Fuchikoma? I bet they wind up looking like completely different CG models from the ones in GitS:SAC, but with more detail. My optimism says to tell you they'll look like real physical objects, but it's saying all kinds of things lately, so take it with a grain of salt.
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johnmora



Joined: 18 Dec 2006
Posts: 74
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:22 pm Reply with quote
I think it could work, as long as it's given an appropriate budget. A GitS film can't have any justice done to it for under $150 million, IMO. The interesting part for me will be who will do the music? I hope they recruit either Kenji Kawai or Yoko Kanno for the film. Anyone else will have a pretty steep uphill battle when it comes to putting a mark on Ghost in the Shell.

As for casting, Grace Park could make a good Major. In the last episode of Battlestar Galactica she was in she had a haircut that reminded me of Chroma... :3
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dewlwieldthedarpachief



Joined: 04 Jan 2007
Posts: 751
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:27 pm Reply with quote
I cringe at the idea of a Japanese show like GITS being Americanized.
I may be speaking for myself here, but personally I have a huge aversion to Hollywood. I can't take Angelina Jolie or any of those people seriously. They don't belong in something that's trying to own up to Mamoru Oshii's work. I'd be way happier if they just got the funding for a Japanese movie, with a Japanese cast. The hell that'll happen though. I think the best case scenario is if they cast relatively unknown people. And God smite me if Paul W.S. Anderson gets involved.
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The Seventh Son



Joined: 27 Nov 2005
Posts: 380
Location: Where your missing socks end up.
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:05 pm Reply with quote
ok, now to proceed with the plan of all otaku stockpiling weapons for our attack on hollywood.
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vashslayerx



Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 3
Location: connecticut
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:37 pm Reply with quote
it cant be helped that good animes will become liveaction movies i just hope it comes out decent and not a peice of crap
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Amibite



Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 196
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:47 pm Reply with quote
dewlwieldthedarpachief wrote:
I cringe at the idea of a Japanese show like GITS being Americanized.
I may be speaking for myself here, but personally I have a huge aversion to Hollywood. I can't take Angelina Jolie or any of those people seriously. They don't belong in something that's trying to own up to Mamoru Oshii's work. I'd be way happier if they just got the funding for a Japanese movie, with a Japanese cast. The hell that'll happen though. I think the best case scenario is if they cast relatively unknown people. And God smite me if Paul W.S. Anderson gets involved.


Why would you want a Japanese cast...? 99% of Japanese LA movies and television are horrible, especially ones based on manga or anime. Ever see live-action Nana or Honey Clover? The characters look nothing like what they should. That's why Japan uses animation, because they don't have any Western-looking actors in their country to accurately portray these characters. America has multiple citizens of hundreds cultures so casting an Asian, Indian, American, European, etc are no problem. With Japan, all they can pretty much do is Asian people since that's what their entire population is. That's why most of their television and movies are animated, because stuff like Gundam would be impossible for them to do, while America can make Star Wars in live-action easily.

Not to mention American movies have much bigger budgets.

But it's all moot because it'll never get past production stages. This is the 20th LA movie based on an anime we've heard about, and 0 have ever been released. Just more wind for the flames, nothing more.
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johnmora



Joined: 18 Dec 2006
Posts: 74
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:37 pm Reply with quote
If either of them looked the part, I'd agree with you. But neither really closely resemble the characters.
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tabi_karasu



Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:58 pm Reply with quote
This seems to have bad written all over it. Sad , But on the other hand this is possibly one of the most logical choices to bring into the live-action scene. Interesting to see how this unfolds. Until Then Transformers better not suck balls.
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bob_loblaw



Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 229
Location: Tanning in Hell
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:11 pm Reply with quote
Well, sure took 'em long enough, didn't it? Rolling Eyes

If the right producer was attached and they assembled the perfect team, then we could in for something great. If not, it'll just become another forgotten, steaming pile action flick. Ghost in the Shell deserves better than that. It's a comic and movie that has influenced countless creatives in Hollywood and the world over. I'm having a lot of trouble envisioning how this film could be pulled off spectacularly and not suck.

However, I might---MIGHT be somewhat encouraged, if the right names came onboard. A director along the lines of an Alfonso Cuarón, Danny Boyle or even Sam Raimi would be peak my interest. Yeah. A director can only do so much, unless they're given a great script, competant art designers, FX creators, editors, composer and cast.

Oh yeah. Cast. Oh boy. I have no idea where to even begin throwing out names. Better yet, names shouldn't be I.G's goal, no matter what Hollywood sycophant tells 'em.

If this ever moves beyond "Developmental Hell" (where Evangelion, Monster, Witch Hunter Robin and Mai the Psychic Girl have taken up permanent residence), I hope they cast an unknown in most of the major roles (pun intended).

Nevertheless, my expectations for any significant movement on this are appropriately deep-sixed. And that's where they'll stay, for the next, oh, seven to twelve years. Laughing
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Amibite



Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 196
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:31 pm Reply with quote
Bob Loblaw wrote:
Ghost in the Shell deserves better than that. It's a comic and movie that has influenced countless creatives in Hollywood and the world over.
Who has it influenced, exactly? I know people keep saying that, but usually when people think of cyberpunk they think of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and I, Robot, not Ghost in the Shell.
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subaru



Joined: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 120
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:00 pm Reply with quote
I actually think its gonna turn out to be one of the best action movie ever. Story wise, they probably would simplify it for general audience. Visually would be good though.

One thing that worries me is people who has never watched GIS would probably think GIS is a copy cat of Matrix. While it is the other way round.
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The Seventh Son



Joined: 27 Nov 2005
Posts: 380
Location: Where your missing socks end up.
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:37 pm Reply with quote
Subaru nailed it. this would just end up looking like a Matrix copy.

and btw, how can transformers NOT SUCK?
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Great Rumbler



Joined: 03 Oct 2006
Posts: 327
Location: Oklahoma
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:48 pm Reply with quote
What's Ridley Scott up to these days?
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DigitalGirl



Joined: 18 Jan 2007
Posts: 7
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:57 pm Reply with quote
My Qualms:

Hollywood Using Caucasian Actors: Well, Section 9 is Japanese and making them anything but would destroy this element as you'd have to place it in another major city like NYC and that just doesn't work. Also, speaking frankly, I love American Action/Drama movies (The Departed anyone?) but I'm not sure high profile american actors are capable of handling a role that calls for someone to be both human and not, and, like the first Matrix movie, I doubt Hollywood would even go through with it if they didn't have at least one major star signed into a role. My qualms with the role, like for Motoko were the qualms I had with Mimi Wood's Motoko Kusanagi for the original movie dub. She was too robotic. Then Mary Elizabeth McGlynn came along for the series and as it progressed she nailed the dynamic between Motoko's soul and body (corney but true). Could people like, and I say this because her name was thrown out, Angelina Jolie, pull it off? And I don't think Steven Seagull has the acting range to even touch Batou

Hollywood Using Asian Actors: They already PO'd quite a few people here and overseas by casting Zhang Ziyi as Sayuri in Memoirs of a Geisha, and contrary to stereotype, Asians do not all look alike. As much as I love Zhang Ziyi's work, I don't think that was a good casting call. Period. Sorry, I look at the box cover and see a Chinese woman in geisha make-up, not a geisha. Given Hollywood's carelessness in a smaller project like Memoirs, how could they fill an entire Asian cast, with at least one prolific actor, and make it seem as though they all hail from Japan?

I'm not 100% opposed to this idea, but I'm very concerned with what it would become, especially if Americans Screenwriters were involved. I'm not blaming Hollywood for anything because frankly what they do to films is what sells them and i understand that.

And I agree with others, I doubt this will actually get anywhere.


Last edited by DigitalGirl on Thu Jan 18, 2007 11:03 pm; edited 2 times in total
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RX-78



Joined: 15 Mar 2005
Posts: 29
Location: B-More
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:59 pm Reply with quote
Great Rumbler wrote:
What's Ridley Scott up to these days?


Took the words right out of my mouth. I would say that Ghost in Shell would be the Matrix meets Blade Runner.
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