Scarlett Johansson Signs Up To Lead Ghost In The Shell

Joshawott

Joshawott

Monsieur Monster
AUKN Staff
When her name was mentioned in regards to DreamWorks' upcoming adaptation of Shirow Masamune's&nbsp;<strong>Ghost in the Shell</strong>&nbsp;cyberpunk manga, few believed that the BAFTA Award winning actress Scarlett Johannson would be interested in joining the project. According to Variety however, the face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Black Widow has&nbsp;signed on to play the lead character in the upcoming feature; the suspiciously unnamed adaptation of Motoko "The Major" Kusanagi.

Rupert Sanders is still signed on to direct the feature based on a script by Bill Wheeler. Avi Arad and Steven Paul are currently attached as producers. Insiders have also informed Variety that&nbsp;Paramount Pictures has also been given the option to sign on to co-produce and co-finance the project.&nbsp;

Source
 
Her Black Widow persona would probably fit quite well, given quality writing and direction - though if they even dare changing her name, that'll be one big eye roll from me.
 
Whoopee.

As I've said before on this subject, she's ENTIRELY wrong for the part. Of the 12 actresses Hollywood automatically offers prolific roles to, I don't think I can imagine anyone with LESS ability to embody Motoko Kusanagi.

This rings the 'the producers don't get it' alarm bell for me, unfortunately.
 
I'm not wild about it either, but I feel inclined to at least give her some benefit of the doubt until I've seen Under the Skin. That aside, "the producers don't get it" sounds like a pretty likely diagnosis.
 
I'm impressed they managed to get someone as good as Scarlett Johannson. Will reserve judgement on this until the film itself comes out. I haven't seen Snow White and the Huntsman so I don't really know how good a director Rupert Sanders is.

...Ron Perlman for Batou.
 
I think the issue is, nobody of an informed opinion can doubt Scarlett Johansson's acting ability. The Dreamworks adaptation of GITS may well be a good movie in its own right. It's just that, the odds of it being a decent translation of the source seem pretty low.
 
Ath said:
I'm impressed they managed to get someone as good as Scarlett Johannson. Will reserve judgement on this until the film itself comes out. I haven't seen Snow White and the Huntsman so I don't really know how good a director Rupert Sanders is.

...Ron Perlman for Batou.
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Well I really didn't like Snow White and the Huntsman but hey all Directors have made bad movies but I like the idea of Ron Perlman being in it.

TBH I don't think you can go to see this with the anime series in mind and judge it. Your gonna have to watch it and try and forget about the anime series (hard I know). It might be decent but can't see it being a major hit (please note: I have been wrong so many times before I've lost count) :lol:

I certainly don't see it being massively popular with the anime fans though but at least it's not Akira, that would have been a disaster (I'm actually very confident that this statement is true) :D
 
I've seen a lot of people claiming white washing, but I wonder this: Has it ever been explicitly stated in "Ghost in the Shell" that Motoko Kusanagi was using a cyborg body with an Asian complexion?

While it's 99.9% likely that Section 9 will become a U.S. division, Chief Aramaki will become something like Colonel Amerika and Togusa will become Mr. John "America" Johnson, it would be cool to see the cyborg aspect of the series to be utilised to maintain the original setting, while also allowing the studios to bring in big name actors and actresses.
 
Dan said:
TBH I don't think you can go to see this with the anime series in mind and judge it. Your gonna have to watch it and try and forget about the anime series (hard I know). It might be decent but can't see it being a major hit (please note: I have been wrong so many times before I've lost count) :lol:
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See, this is the problem.

If Dreamworks / Paramount tell a story that preserves, for argument's sake, the contemplative nature of the first Mamoru Oshii movie at the expense of the aspects that identify GITS as a Japanese property, then it'll be an okay product.

But if it's chopped about and mishandled to the extent that people are going to see a movie billed as being BASED ON ANIME and told 'put the anime / manga out of your mind and watch it without preconceptions', then, I ask you... just what was the point of attempting an adapation? It becomes just another movie.
 
I think they need to maintain a lot of the essence of the original, otherwise it just becomes a generic 'cyberpunk sci-fi' Hollywood flick, which has already been done to death over the past fifteen years - not least by the likes of the Matrix and the clones that followed its original success.
 
robot monkey said:
The odd thing in all this is in the article I read it said this still hadn't actually been green lighted so there is a chance it may not be made.
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In that case I'd say it probably won't, look at Akira. Also didn't Keanu Reeves buy the rights to make a Cowboy Bebop movie years ago. No sight of that.
 
Having a big name like ScarJo attached is more than likely a way to get the film funded and green-lit more than anything else.
 
Lutga said:
I think they need to maintain a lot of the essence of the original, otherwise it just becomes a generic 'cyberpunk sci-fi' Hollywood flick, which has already been done to death over the past fifteen years - not least by the likes of the Matrix and the clones that followed its original success.
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This is EXACTLY the problem.

I actually had a very long discussion one time with a pal who tried to convince me (before I'd seen it) that The Matrix was 'just like Ghost in the Shell'. That conversation basically consisted of me asking him repeatedly HOW it was just like Ghost in the Shell, and whether he'd even actually bothered to sit down and watch GITS, and if he HAD whether he'd actually paid any sodding attention to it. Because despite his protestations, he clearly hadn't.

To make the sort of impression that makes the adaptation worthwhile, Dreamworks are going to have to do it RIGHT. Not just a little bit right. Not just 'it's okay if you make a few concessions and allowances' right. It has to be done RIGHT. And if Hollywood has demonstrated anything with its attitude to anime as a source of mainstream movie material, it's that they WON'T do it right.

Bottom line: They're going for properties that are too big to handle. Akira, Ghost in the Shell... these are too ambitious to even consider pulling off properly unless you step outside of the 'everything's dictated by money' mindset of the big studios. If they can't even get a Bubblegum Crisis movie off the ground (and that should be simplicity to repackage for a western audience) then they're probably not to be trusted with anything more complex.

Just consider what we've either already had, or what has already been mooted and never came to pass. Where's the Robotech movie? Where's the Gunslinger Girl adapation? How many iterations has the laughably Manhattan-based US Akira gone through? Where's that Bebop movie?

Translating anime to the big screen with big name American stars just isn't viable. If it was, I can't help but think we'd have seen better progress with the idea than we have so far.

I think maybe the thing for Hollywood to do is to try more stuff in the vein of Edge of Tomorrow, which worked fantastically well. The source material had less of a legend about it, came without the baggage of a pre-existing TV show or anything to fuel pre-conceptions of the movie. It also didn't have a legion of fans ready and waiting to scream 'AAAARGH! YOU'VE ALREADY RUINED IT BY EVEN TRYING!'
 
I was really genuinely surprised at how much I liked Edge of Tomorrow - I think it managed to do a cracking job - and although it lost some of the fine details of the original source work, it still managed to feel like a polished, consistent piece with the spirit of the original intact. I even think it did a better job than Pacific Rim.

If Edge of Tomorrow showed that this stuff can 'sort of' work, then I see no reason why we can't see a few other Japanese inspired properties in the West over the next few years - but yeah, GITS has all the cards stacked against it; as much as I would like to see it happen, simply for the mainstream media interest it'd prompt in the original.
 
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