The scriptwriter for Hollywood’s 2011 movie violation of Ghost in the Shell has stressed the movie will be packed full of action.
Hollywood scriptwriter Laeta Kalogridis told of what to expect from the live action in recent comments:
“A lot of action… lots of action. There’s still going to be a lot of atmosphere – [The movie] is about vast possibilities – all of this technology, the Internet – it’s about the limitless possibilities of this technology. ”
In another interview she goes into more detail, emphasising that the movie is based on the supposedly action-packed manga and not the pretentious pseudo-philosohpical technobabble of the film:
Q: Is that a remake of the 1995 film or is that an adaptation of the earlier manga?
LK: “Ghost in the Shell” was originally the manga. The anime came from the original graphic novel and then — and that anime, as you know, is a relatively famous, groundbreaking piece of material — also generated two seasons of an animated television show as well.
And this is an adaptation of the original manga, the original comic book that sort of began everything.
Q: It sounds like it’s going to be a really intelligent, visually cool sci-fi film. Do you see this as possibly paving the way for more live action adaptations of anime and mangas in Hollywood?
LK: I can’t really speak to the trend because certainly a lot of the stateside comic book sources and even U.K. comics that have been mined, I think there’s always room for new source material just like people.
I also think that a lot of the themes of anime as an art form are much more adult and darker than what people sometimes associate with the kinds of four-quadrant movies.
For me, I don’t really know the answer to that, but I do think that Bill Gibson’s vision of an Eastern-informed West, where so much of our cultural reference points start to come from this shared literary history, I think that that’s definitely happening.
And so, as mythos kind of evolves, and I think anime and manga are slowly becoming a big part of our mythos, I think yes, they’re sort of a natural fit for films.
Much as Akira, Dragon Ball and King of Fighters were.
Expect plenty of pitched gun battles in the dark futuristic streets of Neo-New York as aliens tear the city apart in pursuit of the Crystal.
In all seriousness, good casting could make or break this. In almost every other situation in which anime was rendered into live action (especially by Hollywood), lousy casting ruined the final film. Put the right actors in the right roles and this thing might actually be worth seeing.
Of course that would also depend on the actors getting a decent script.
*based off the manga*
s♥♥t. I much preferred Motoko in the anime to the manga version of her =/
Would the movie featured them as Japan Public Safety Section 9, or adapting to America or European?
either way, I may still be biased.
I loved the story, hadn’t read the manga, but loved the anime, both movies and S.A.C series, 1st and 2nd GIG and SSS.
it would be dumb to have non-japanese play roles of japanese. that is, if they stick to the original story…
I shall d/l it. If it’s any good then I even might pay to see it. If it’s amazingly awesome (which I highly doubt) I shall buy the DVD.(second hand)
“Laeta Elizabeth Kalogridis (born August 30, 1965) is a screenwriter. She has written scripts for Alexander (2004), Night Watch (2006 in U.S.), Pathfinder (2007) and Shutter Island (2010). She has also served as an executive producer for the television series Birds of Prey and Bionic Woman.”
I am not optimiistic.