Scarlett Johansson to Star in Ghost in the Shell Live-Action Film

Tojumaru

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Not only is it insulting to anime, but it's also racist towards Japan. There is a plethora of Japanese actresses that could fit the major's shoes, but why is anyone making a Ghost in the Shell live-action film? WHYYYYYYY? What are they getting next? Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop...? Oh no, I may have said too much fuuuu...
 

MirenBainesUSMC

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No

For the simple reason that the Major isn't a blond, blue eyed white woman and never was.

So you mean to tell me that Hollywood still can't find a decent up and comming asian actor to play what is basically an asian woman's role?

What next --- is Mulan going to be a live action movie with a tall, green eyed red headed woman with Celtic painting on her face?

Roles should fit the creation, this is why a lot of these movies die quickly. They need to open themselves up to a more diverse pool of actors than the same 10 actors.
 

Paragon Fury

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Jan 23, 2009
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I'm just going to leave this here:




Also, I think the more important question is this;

Will Tougusa keep his Mullet of Power or will they give him a more "modern" hairstyle?
 

Metalrocks

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didnt had the chance to see lucy but i sure will get the dvd once its out.
i think she could pull it off. she does make a confident stance towards action movies and i think she can be good in playing the role if she does her homework and the director isnt up his ass forcing his way around the actual character.
but as pointed out, she is not asian. and yes, why not hire that hot girl who played in pacific rim? she almost looked like her.
i have my doubts that it will be any good. you expect that at least japan them self would make a live action movie. i guess we just sit tide and see what will happen.
 

Keiichi Morisato

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i honestly always thought that is there was a franchise that could be westernized, it would be GitS, they would just need the right casting, the right director, and the right script. hopefully the planets align.
 

samahain

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As a GITS fanatic and a big fan of Scarlett, there is no way for the fanboy in me not to be pleased.
Altough "Bella and THOR" did hurt my eyes for a while afterward...
 

samahain

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Paragon Fury said:
I'm just going to leave this here:

[Snip]


Also, I think the more important question is this;

Will Tougusa keep his Mullet of Power or will they give him a more "modern" hairstyle?
Well, she does wear the tech-fetish gear pretty well ^^'
Koodos for poiting it out! But while Rinko Kikushi fit the profile to a point; there is way too much warmth emanating from that human being. We are talking about Motoko here... I think Scarlett has the right persona. If it doesn't turn out like the live-action version of "Aeon Flux", i'll be happy.

I mean, Charlize Theron aced it alright; but the scenario had a most tenuous relation with the MTV show.

(So, yeah pleasedontsuck-pleasedontsuck-pleasedontsuck)
 

Keiichi Morisato

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Tojumaru said:
Not only is it insulting to anime, but it's also racist towards Japan. There is a plethora of Japanese actresses that could fit the major's shoes, but why is anyone making a Ghost in the Shell live-action film? WHYYYYYYY? What are they getting next? Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop...? Oh no, I may have said too much fuuuu...
but the film is not going to be set IN japan, but likely New York.
 

Rebel_Raven

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This won't go over well. Everything just rubs me the wrong way. the only saving grace is that Ghost in the Shell is pretty tame in terms of visuals, so they don't need to throw energy blasts, and stuff.
Still, Hollywood thinks people in general are dumb, so they're not going to make it as deep as it should be.
 

JimB

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roseofbattle said:
It is a disappointment, however, that an Asian actress may not be playing Motoko Kusanagi.
Not that I'm arguing the point, but there is some possibility for something interesting here. Since the original series asked questions about what gender and sex mean in a primarily fabricated body, there's an opportunity to ask what race means, too.

I have no reason to think the movie intends to do that, mind. I just think it's a question that could be asked and answered in the film if they wanted to.
 

VanQ

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Oct 23, 2009
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Did we really need another Hollywood anime adaptation? They couldn't manage to properly adapt DBZ which is about as brainless and easy as a series can come and they think they can pull of GiTS? Yeah right.
 

commasplice

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samahain said:
Paragon Fury said:
If it doesn't turn out like the live-action version of "Aeon Flux", i'll be happy.

I mean, Charlize Theron aced it alright; but the scenario had a most tenuous relation with the MTV show.
I only came here to say this, but you already did it for me.

I really don't understand why they keep doing this. Like. If it doesn't have any relation to the characters or themes from the original, why give it the same name? If you just wanna make a movie about a cyberpunk dystopia, do that, but don't go dragging the names of things I love through the mud, y'know?
 

MirenBainesUSMC

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Heck the girl from Battle star Galactica and Hawaii 5-0 can play the part. Anyone. Even if you did fall back on the premiss that the person playing the part is merely a downloaded character to another body, it just so happens to give it legitmaticy, it must be a western oriented depiction?
 

Sampler

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fix-the-spade said:
Cans of whitewash still experiencing strong sales in Hollywood...

However, if it must be whitewashed they could do a lot worse than casting The Black Widow as Major Kusanagi, begs the question who will play Batou and Togusa, I always pictured Batou as European simply because he looks European, but Togusa not so much.

I can't help but think that Hollywood will shy away from the heavier themes in GitS and that the film will suffer from it.
Back in '96 when I first saw this I so wanted Arnie or Lungren for Batou, now, I don't think we have any muscles men up to fill his frame, all the modern macho men are lean muscle and not gym queens like Arnie, it'll be difficult to get someone to fill his boots (literally and metaphorically).

Now, I'm not so sure, I like Scarlett but she doesn't fit the look of Kusanagi for me, I'd like to see Grace Park (even though she's of Korean decent), but then I could watch her in anything, probably only reason I've seen so many episodes of Hawaii 5-O.

They're many parallels in modern day society the story could do a good job of adapting the allegory for, Rise did a pretty good job of it last year, so it could be good - but not sure about the director =(
 

Rellik San

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I'm interested, as frankly this casting choice is the least interesting part about this movie: Also consider this: Say the plot requires two actresses to play the Major one for scenes in Japan and Johansson for the main part of the movie, with the plot being Section 9 is called in for covert anti-cyber terrorism ops State side hackers have been targetting Japan, so they send the Major in a new body to go and investigate undercover.

This results in her questioning her own identity as the film goes on, with her inner ghost no longer matching her outer shell, resulting in psychological breaks she eventually has to over come to solve the case.

Sounds pretty in line with the themes of the original works if you ask me.
 

Paragon Fury

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Jan 23, 2009
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Rellik San said:
I'm interested, as frankly this casting choice is the least interesting part about this movie: Also consider this: Say the plot requires two actresses to play the Major one for scenes in Japan and Johansson for the main part of the movie, with the plot being Section 9 is called in for covert anti-cyber terrorism ops State side hackers have been targetting Japan, so they send the Major in a new body to go and investigate undercover.

This results in her questioning her own identity as the film goes on, with her inner ghost no longer matching her outer shell, resulting in psychological breaks she eventually has to over come to solve the case.

Sounds pretty in line with the themes of the original works if you ask me.
Thing is the Major has been shown to be fairly adaptable at ease with hacking and possessing other bodies if need be. It doesn't really cause her any distress or issues.
 

Kurt Cristal

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vagabondwillsmile said:
fix-the-spade said:
Cans of whitewash still experiencing strong sales in Hollywood...

However, if it must be whitewashed they could do a lot worse than casting The Black Widow as Major Kusanagi, begs the question who will play Batou and Togusa, I always pictured Batou as European simply because he looks European, but Togusa not so much.

I can't help but think that Hollywood will shy away from the heavier themes in GitS and that the film will suffer from it.
One thing I will say on the issue of race in asian comics and animation being adapted by Hollywood and its almost inevitable (and stupid) white-washing: It IS common for many characters in any given work to have hair colors and skin tones to indicate indeterminate race. So, often, they could just as easily - in live action - be played by people of asian, anglo-saxon, latin, hebrew, middle-eastern, mixed, etc. ethnicities (of course it doesn't work if culture and ethnicity is central to the message of the story though, which is part of why the live-action dump of Nickalodeon's Avataar was such a shit-show...). Kiki's Dilivery Service from Miyazaki could very well be in a place like Amsterdam and played entirely by European actors. BUT there ARE often indicators in Asian stories that would lead to the characters being thought of as specifically Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc. Character names, locations, cultural idiosyncrasies, etc. can all indicate a character's implied ethnicity and culture regardless of cell color used to represent their skin. Certainly, this is the case with GitS. The appearance is of indeterminate race/ethnicity/culture. BUT we all know they are Japanese. And out of respect to the nation and culture of origine it would be nice for Hollywood to cast accordingly! If Speilberg was truly a fan, he would understand this! White-washing does a disservice to the source material.

And yeah - the GitS film was actually plenty watered-down from the manga anyway. They won't even touch the heavy stuff in the film or manga, and certainly not the manga's comedy (ex. the pranks the squad pulls, the funny tachikomas, Kusanagi telling off her superiors and making them punch themselves via hack, body swaps...). The Hollywood adaptation, considering Hollywood's track record with these things, is bound to be token, Hollywood action cyber-shclock, and will probably try to out-mood the GitS animated film, which is... pretty damn dark and moody.
I agree and disagree here. Consider for a moment that Motoko is 95% cyborg, meaning her body was sculpted. Even if she is racially Japanese, its up to her what 'shell' of a body she chooses to put her brain into. In this sense, Motoko can be 100% japanese mentally, and just happen to have Scarlett Johansson's body. Same goes for the rest of the cast, they're all cyberized to some degree so as far as this specific adaptation, really, the characters can be whatever race they feel like, with the exception of Togusa, who's minimally cyberized AND definitively Japanese.

As for fans of the series, anyone else with me on this next bit? I'd like to see the main villain be an adaptation of Kazundo Gouda. He villains it up to 11 by appearance alone and I'd love to see a live adaptation include him.
 

Vigormortis

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Marter said:
Let's just not complain about Johansson starring and instead complain about Rupert Sanders directing.

That's the problem with the film thus far. ;=D
Egh. I'm pretty sure the first and largest problem reared it's ugly head when someone uttered, "Hey, I have a great idea! Let's take another really famous and popular anime series, make it live-action, and modernize it!"
 

Nixou

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SJ seems like a decent enough lead to be playing Kusanagi (but it still hurts that they couldn't get a Japanese actress for the role)

Given what the Major is, they could have used several actresses to play her role and put an emphasis on the notion that she sees her bodies the same way meatbags see their clothes.

Chances are, though, they'll just displace the whole movie in the US and turn section 9 into cyber-FBI