Margot Robbie In Ghost In The Shell talks

Joshawott

Joshawott

Monsieur Monster
AUKN Staff
For a while now, Dreamworks Pictures'&nbsp;live action adaptation of Masamune Shirow's revolutionary cyberpunk manga&nbsp;<em>Ghost in the Shel</em><em>l</em>&nbsp;has been a hot point for discussion and now, the first real word on who could be starring in the picture has surfaced.

According to The Wrap, Margot Robbie (<em>The Wolf of Wall Street</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Neighbours</em>) has entered talks to play the franchise's lead character, Major&nbsp;Motoko Kusanagi (who will most likely be renamed for the Hollywood adaptation).

Rupert Sanders (<em>Snow White and the Huntsman</em>) was previously announced to be directing the movie, which is being produced by Avi Arad (Sony's&nbsp;<em>Spider-Man</em>&nbsp;franchises), Steven Paul and Mark Sourian.

The original&nbsp;<em>Ghost in the Shell</em>&nbsp;manga is published by Dark Horse Comics, while&nbsp;Manga Entertainment UK have released Mamoru Oshii's 1995 movie, the sequel&nbsp;<em>Innocence: Ghost in the Shell</em><em>&nbsp;2</em>, the&nbsp;<em>Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex&nbsp;</em>TV anime. A blu-ray steelbook of the 1995 movie is currently slated for release on 29th September, while the first two parts of the OVA series&nbsp;<em>Ghost in the Shell: ARISE</em>&nbsp;will be released on DVD and blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 24th November.
 
I have yet to actually see anything she's in, so I can't really make an informed opinion on whether she could play the Major (whatever they end up calling her). I don't like the other names that are attached though.
 
That all sounds so...minging :( I googled the girl and she's pretty but no, just no. I'd rather take Charlise Theron since she suits dark hair (Aeon Flux)!

It's a good job Rupert Sanders ended up having a bad affair with Kristen Stewart otherwise he may of cast her the way stupid Emma Roberts keeps being cast in American Horror Story cause she's with Evan -_-
 
The other names are awful and this could happen. Let's have a look at Kite


It can happen.

Also, reviews for the live-action Lupin have been pretty awful.
 
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I've never even heard of that Kite anime before, strange that Hollywood would take an interest in adapting that.

When are they going to hurry up and make an Afro Samurai movie? Get Rza to direct, he did a admirable enough job on Man with Iron Fists, and this would basically be the same movie, only it would have samurai swords and Samuel Jackson.
 
vashdaman said:
I've never even heard of that Kite anime before, strange that Hollywood would take an interest in adapting that.
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I doubt they adapted it too closely as it has underage rape in it. It made sense in the context of the anime but Yasuomi Umetsu sure does like to draw huge man parts and the ova is not for the easily disturbed or offended.
 
Never mind the casting - it's the possible re-naming of a pivotal, popular and iconic character that irritates me.

Seriously , Hollywood - if you're gonna mine anime as a source of potential new summer movies (and weve not seen that done in any particularly successful fashion yet) then do it properly or don't bother.

It will take a MIRACLE to realise GITS on the silver screen and make it palatable to fans. And the current business climate in Tinseltown doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
 
I have much more of a problem with potential re-naming than them actually doing a live action version.

Edge of Tomorrow was bad enough with it's 'Bill Cage'.

Renaming the Major would just be... no.
 
It'll be a changed into a dystopian America, where Motoko Kusanagi is now a teenage, new recruit called Suzie McNuggets or something like that. Batou will be a high school jock called Barry and Togusa will be Toby the nerd.

Personally, I don't really understand the need for films adapted from foreign works to be changed to make then American.
 
That's right where I am on it, Joshawott.

The idea that anime is a viable source for US summer movies is pretty much terminally flawed, and need to be ditched wholesale. So much of what makes the source material appealing and popular is rooted in the fact that it is what it is. You can't repackage it.

Honestly, we need more movie like Pacific Rim, where the inspiration is obvious, but we have something fresh.

I mean, give me a big summer movie with Charlize Theron, Lucy Liu and Zooey Deschanel in robot armour kicking the crap out of rogue robots, and I'm THERE. Call it Bubblegum Crisis, and I stay away. Because it couldn't hope to be that.
 
But why do you care whether it's called Bubblegum Crisis or not? Why not just take it on it's own merits and disregard the title as you would have done if it wasn't called bubblegum crisis? Would Pacific Rim have been any less good if it were called "Evangelion The Movie"?
 
As much as I treasure the original Ghost in the Shell anime movie and kinda like the manga, I'm not totally against the idea of a movie but I'm not positive about the news released so far. The director has a unique opportunity to try and make something worthwhile and it's up to you to decide whether he or she succeeds. The director and cast in this case aren't up to much but I'll reserve further judgement for if and when I see the film.

A live-action movie is going to get made whether we like it or not because the name is worth a lot and it has an inbuilt fanbase to milk cash from. If America doesn't make it then Japan will and it will probably look worse because the budget won't be up to much and the screenwriters will change the story/characters. Recent examples include the Black Butler movie, massive changes to the story and more. Gatchaman wasn't so great, Lupin doesn't live up to the anime.

That written, don't write these projects off because I have seen live-action films that are worthwhile adaptations: Detroit Metal City, Rurouni Kenshin and Mushishi.
 
vashdaman said:
But why do you care whether it's called Bubblegum Crisis or not? Why not just take it on it's own merits and disregard the title as you would have done if it wasn't called bubblegum crisis?
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Branding, m'duck. Branding. I have a problem with adaptations of material which could easily be suffixed with 'in name only' for a variety of reasons.

You can, in theory have a perfectly enjoyable movie that takes its name and core inspiration from other source material... but if it then deviates so far from that as to be borderline unrecognisable, I think that's bad. There's a risk of alienating existing fans, and it's possibly a hinderance to new fans wanting to check out the original.
 
Basically, if I buy Nutella, I expect it to taste like a chocolate hazelnut spread and not like peanut butter.

So regardless of how the Nutella is adapted; whether it's the original spread, as a chocolate bar or anything else, I still want it to be Nutella.
 
And there it is! Joshawott basically sums up my feelings on the matter.

Yet, curiously... I feel tempted to say more...

The issue for me is that we're talking about Hollywood adapting a real powerhouse of a franchise.

Ghost In The Shell is probably as unwise a candidate for adaptation as Akira. We're not just talking about some generic pot-boiler anime here - they're both GENRE DEFINING works.

Just take a second to absorb that: Genre defining. Never mind that they're anime / manga. They're both sufficiently acclaimed that you'll hear talk of them outside anime circles where sci-fi and cyberpunk come up. So the pressure is there to do them right.

Water down the content, start taking liberties with the key ingredients, and what you get is a shadow of what it could and should be.

Better to have something original taking notable inspiration from a classic than a fake version purporting to be the same thing, in my opinion.
 
Part of the problem is as well:

When GITS first came out - it was breaking new ground, practically inventing the genre itself. Whereas now it's been ripped off and influenced so many other things, it now just feels like a wider part of the fabric. On its original release, it was ahead of its time re. subject matter. Now it's just an element in a wider discourse, and while the original remains a masterpiece, any adaptation would have to struggle with essentially being 'just another cyberpunk action adventure flick'.
 
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