DreamWorks acquires rights to Ghost in the Shell.

Also, I meant "think," not "thing." Sorry about that.

Ouch

Everything that has been produced under the GiTS license so far has been great. I think this is because Shirow monitors them with a big stick in hand, and he's a genius. So it will be good

My concern, are the actors to be ethnic asians, since it is set in Japan, OR caucasians as most of the characters look? And if not asian, where will it be set? Gaijin cops in Japan? orredo the characters to be ethnic Japanese and will there be enough of a market for that?

I'm voting for Yun-Fat Chow as Batou.

Sounds pretty cool.

Is dreamwork also orking on Battle angel alita or am i remembering wrong.

Fox, actually, helmed by James Cameron.


-karma

QFT.


Uhm ... most characters in SAC actually appear fairly japane-zy for Anime standards ... Bateau [sic] being the exception, sicne he is supposed to be ethnic caucasian (just look at his nose!).

You know... I have to admit I'm very very leary of a live action version of GitS. I hope Shirow rules it with his heavy stick but... I have my concerns.

Of course is Spielberg loves it nearly as much as he loved WWII, it could be totally awesome.

Aramaki, Boma and Ishikawa could be said to look Japanese. that's it. Only the Major's thick hair looks Japanese. Hate to admitt it but we, Japanese girls, don't come with those curves she has.

Togasa, Saito and Pazu look very caucasian. heck only Saito has dark hair!

Batou, I never thought of him as caucasion, just because most of the team looks caucasian. The hair cut, if not oclor is japanese. Names that begin with 'B' or 'G' are thought to be somewhat brutish. So 'B'atou in his name discribes the big heavy man, like 'B'oma.

She didn't either? I mean, in that Anime. Being a full-body 'borg and all. But yeah, point taken. Then again, it's Shirow. Lots of japanese girls have rather ... un-japane-zy proportions in his works.

Togusa is supposed to be japanese though, I think ... propably dyes his hair. At least in china, that seems to be quite popular, and it appears to me they mimic every last fashion trend coming from Japan there. Or it's blamable on "it's Anime, people have green hair there and everyone thinks that's normal" ...

Pazu could be Israeli or something, though, with that name. Though most of that crew have biosculpted faces, so they may be whatever.

Didn't know about that brutes part though. I'll consider that when naming the next Yak Squad, Thanks.

I'm worried that they'll make Togusa into some sort of comedic sidekick.

Oh, and I'd vote for Summer Glau as Major Kusanagi.

As much as everyone loves Summer Glau, I'd think she's too young/fresh-faced to play the Major...Now I'm going to have to start thinking of my fantasy cast

Summer Glau is 27. I noticed in the Terminator TV show that they were working hard to make her seem 'teenish', which has to be doubly hard when you're supposed to be playing a machine...

Just sayin'... give her some cynical angst and some mature, serious cloths and she might actually fit.

Not that I care much. She's hot, but so is 90% of Hollywood, Bollywood and whatever they call the chinese grindhouse area...no dearth of hot people in acting, no matter what country you talk about.

I've not seen much Ghost in the Shell: the original movie and some of the first series. But I've seen enough to get a feel for the subject matter and the tone and I honestly can't think of many worse directors than Spielberg in some ways. I still shudder at his last foray into dark, near future. For those who have repressed the memory, it was called AI and I would require payment to sit through that again.

It's not so much for her hotness that I'd choose her, but because she is graceful. I mean, she's able to act while moving; check out the terminator face she keeps while she's in the middle of a knock-down, drag-out fight. Whoever played the Major would have to be able to do that. There have been too many films lately with "veteran combatant" female characters who don't actually look like they're fighting.

Actually, I think quite a few actresses can easily pull off the 'acting while fighting' bit quite well. The trick is convincing them to actually, you know, sign on for the movie.

Summer comes from a dance background, which a surprisingly large number of actresses do as well. I do rather suspect that she's the only current actress working who has been pushed extensively to use that, and may even 'over' use it to make up for deficencies in actual acting ability.

Which, as you point out, may be a significant asset for this particular role.

As long as they don't try to dump Ghost in the Shell down to a kids story the movie will be great. Every time Spielberg tries to add humor in for the kids he screws the movie up. Ewoks, Jar Jar, and the entire Star Wars episodes 1, 2, and 3; Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom (I think that was the second one). But take the ones he made for adults Star Wars episodes 4 and 5, Raiders of the Lost Ark and a few others, so I hope he makes the movie for an adult audience.

DLN: I don't know if Batou is ethnically Japanese, but it was stated in SAC 1st Gig (as well as an appendix in one of the mangas) that he was a US Army Ranger when he started his military career. So it's possible Batou is hapa or something.



Well, not naturally, no. But most modern Japanese girls don't pay for full cyborg prosthetic bodies, either.

Ignore the Ewoks and Return of the Jedi is a pretty dark and adult flick

If by "Spielberg" you mean "Lucas," then I agree with you.

Temple of Doom was better than most folks give credit for it; it's just that Western audiences don't understand all the Hindu stuff, especially when it leaks into the themes and plot. Spielberg was in on the Indiana Jones movies.

Agree!


Aaron, yup that is what I meant. I always get those two confused. Sorry Spielberg! I like the Temple of Doom it just the humor in it was ... off key for the movie. The little asian kid was good and I liked him, but the humor they had him do was just dumb.

Silliness of the scene aside, those were prepared to BBQ and EAT the main characters, knowing full well that humans were intelligent beings. Makes the party scene at the end, with the ewoks using imerpial helmets as percussion instruments, a bit more creepy if you keep that in mind. One of my friends used to sing over the party scene music: "Yub yub / we eat human flesh / ..."


Anyway... I haven't really followed GitS much, so I don't have the attachment to it that many fans do. So, I guess I'll reserve judgement on whether it will be good or suck balls.

Well supposedly aren't at least some of Section 9 supposed to be old war buddies from some sort of WW3 scenario? That could explain the different ethnicities if they decided to ditch their home country after the war especially since a good number of them have what are essentially high priced fighter jet equivalents for bodies. Hard to be patriotic when you really, really need that sixty thousand mile tune up on your spine. Course the story changes slightly in every itteration, because if I remember correctly in the original Manga the Major was actually something like sixty, but since she had a completely artificial body you could not notice.

I'm optimistic but also a bit leery. I'll wait to see when Akira goes live-action before making any judgments on Japanese anime-to-American live action films.

I have a very hard time seeing the American film industry doing a sci-fi/action flick with heavy dosages of Japanese politics along with Zen, Shinto and Buddhist philosophies and doing it well. So much of what makes GitS great are the subtle nuances that are so very... Japanese. Take those away and you have The Terminator. I'll give Spielberg props for Minority Report but that was more for set design and direction than story. And if he's only producing this thing and giving it to a hack like Michael Bay it's all over. No amount of Joss Whedon fan nerd-casting would save it.

The trick will be not to try. just have them living in the world and not try to push Nippon. An example form the 2nd gig might be when Batou confronts the evil plotter on top of the sky scraper. There was a shrine there to the "Individual 11" who suicided there. Batou kneels offers a prayer for them while talking to the bad guy. don't explain what he is donig, just do it and move on. The smart audience will get it.

Ewoks are hardcore, definitely. Supposed "badass" Boba Fett gets killed accidentally by a blind guy; meanwhile Ewoks are popping out of the woods like little furry ninjas, defeating the damn Empire with low-tech guerrilla tactics. I hadn't even really thought about how they were also man-eating savages, that's awesome.

I guess my question is if they're going to go the action oriented "lighter" pacing of GitS:SAC or if they're going to go down the "Let's Demonstrate What It's Like to Have Access To Wikipedia:Philosophy All the Time" of the movies.

That's not how western-style movies work, though.


a) The name you're looking for is Lucas, not Spielberg
b) GitS and good old Space Opera, while I do love Space opera, just don't mix.


I agree. Which is why this movie will fail.


Joss Wheadon, while a brilliant scriptwright and director of serieses, especially with character development, is totally not the person that could do GitS well.

Also, I seriously doupt they'll find any actress that could convincingly play someone as mysterious and cold and yet not incredibly dull and boring as Major Kusanagi appears in the Series' and movies, which si largely to the pretty brilliant voice acting in the japanese original (the english voice, while okay, doesn't come within light years of that).

I think the very fact that so many people can't distinguish between Spielberg and Lucas initially shows why this is such a bad idea.

I've never seen anything else that had the unique feel of a GITS work, while Specas movies are essentially "Generic Western Movie Formula #X" done slightly better than most people, with the occasional blatant steal from Japanese cinema. *cough*StarWarsisHiddenFortressTheRemix*cough*

The fact that these two directors have such similar styles--and that those styles are a galaxy far far away from GITS--screams disaster louder than an incoming satellite piloted by singing tachikoma AI's.

Whoa whoa... are you saying that singing tachikoma AI's plumetting through the atmosphere isn't all manner of awesome?

In the Ghost series the Americans are the "bad guys", and I do beleive everyone is supposed to be Japanese. (Although supposedly Shirow admited that he based Batous looks on Steven Seagal so I guess that would make for a good casting choice).


I have high hopes for this as Speilburg really wanted it. Usually when these things go to absolute crap it's because someone bought a property and then drops it in the lap of someone who wasn't a huge fan of the work.

Yeah, but there are also some terrible fanfics out there. Being a rabid fan of a genre doesn't mean you can actually create something that has the same feel. For example, I'm a huge fan of swing music, and a talented musician--but I can't write swing to save my life. I can do awesome covers, but I can't create an original work that sounds like swing. My talent simply lies along different lines.

It's the same thing here: Spielberg may love GITS, but that doesn't mean he'll be able to make a GITS-style movie. Judging from the work he's done so far, I'd say we're in for a francise-raping the likes of which hasn't been seen since Joel Schumaker took over the Batman Movies.




Not at all. In fact, I nearly cried during that scene. Pathetic, I know, but I'm a sucker for samurai-invoking pyhhric victories.

The life of a man...
...burn it with the fire...

Isn't that akin to saying "I think the very fact that so many people can't distinguish between bionics and cybernetics initially shows why prosthetics research is such a bad idea?"

I bet they'll be Americans in the US remake.


Spielberg movies, on the other hand, usually are dedicated, true to the original, and always have a vibe unique to that movie? Right. The only worse choice in regards of high-level directors could be Emmerich.


Apples and oranges have a lot in common, yes.

Er ... could you be a bit less vague? I miss your point. Are you agreeing with me, or are you suggesting that I'm drawing an invalid analogy?

Wow, no sleep for 24hrs and I'm still not going to take the flame-bait. I must have better self control that I thought.

It's not apples to oranges. My whole argument has been that I don't feel someone whose artistic style is as "western generic" as Spielberg makes a good choice to be behind something as unique and distinctly asian as GITS.

People confuse Lucas and Spielberg because their styles are almost identical--they basically operate on the standard adventure/drama formulas that have been a staple of western writing for at least a century. It's the same style of storytelling you see in old adventure novels and radio plays.

GITS, on the other hand, has a very unique feel even for Japanese anime, which is itself pretty far removed the style that Spielberg favors.

Going back to my music metaphor, this is like asking a synthrash performer to write an orchestra piece. You may get a synthrash version of an orchestra piece, but it will not sound like it's from the same genre as Mozart or Debussy.

In my experience, nothing sucks quite like a movie that has the characters and trappings of the previous films/episodes/whatever, but absolutely does not feel like a "<insert beloved property here> movie"--and that is what I think we'll get from this. Not a new GITS movie, but a "Stephen Spielberg Does GITS" movie.

That makes more sense. At first I thought you were suggesting that making a movie was pointless because some people didn't know the difference yada yada yada.

And I for one was indeed pointing out that I find the analogy between medical technology and movie making a bit ... far fetched.

No, that would be stupid.

* Edited to add quote, I don't type so fast on a sleep deficit.

Allowing that Spielberg actually is a huge fan of the work (I don't know him and interviews aren't worth spit), then it is important to know why he is a big fan. Is it because he likes the idea of cyborg bodies? Is it because he likes the subtlety of the central characters. Is it just because he doesn't know much anime, saw GitS and thought "Wow! This cartoon is totally different to Darkwing Duck, I've got to do something with it!"

We don't know and so we don't know which aspects of GitS might be preserved and which parts he might think of as just window dressing and scrap. Personally, there are very few of Spielberg's films that I have liked. And the older I get, the shorter that list gets, as his approach of "Now I make you feel sad. Now I make you feel touched. Now I make you feel..." seems cruder and cruder.

Awww so you must not have liked AI?

*ducks*

I honestly think that American anime to live Action will probably be like our effort to make a decent goddamn comic book movie.

In other words, it's gonna be a while and I wish they'd started with another series.

Oh well.

i know what you're talking about . . sometimes, when i'm feeling brave i look that scene up on youtube.com . . the original japanese version is the worst x.x

A.I. had... characters that made no sense, technology that was inconsistent, no pacing, dubious and self-contradictory morality, enough sentimentality to choke a puppy, a plot that ran like a bad Dungeons and Dragons game, a future society that has zero internal consistency, clumsy attempts to manipulate the audience's feelings, a lack of ability to actually make the viewer suspend his or her disbelief and forget they're watching a movie and a literal deus ex machina ending that is not only spectacularly stupid, scientifically insane, boring as a sprout and actually unnecessary, but also manages to make the central character even more staggeringly dull and unlikeable by adding a degree of selfishness and narcissim that is literally cosmic in its implications when you think about it properly.

Nor am I alone.

Worst Films Ever

Jude Law, however, was quite good.

Khadim.

Yeah, but the "Rouge City" bit or whatever it was seemed very SR in a way.

A.I. would have been better if it ended after the kid fell in the water. That would have left you with a message about the faults and cruelty of humanity, instead of being a lame Pinocchio rip-off. The fact the Spielberg chose a safe, comfortable, Disney ending over the melancholy ending that makes a point is the surest sign that >this< will never happen in a Spiel-borg GITS movie, and those uncomfortable, surreal, philosophical question marks are what makes GITS so great.

Oh yes, that would have been the Kubrick ending. The Spielberg ending was totally wrong.


Yes. GitS isn't family friendly, puppy cute and easy and nice. Propably event he wachowskys would be a better choice than Spielberg.


I firmly believe that's it!

Animaniacs, not Darkwing Duck.

"Gee Laughing Man, what do you want to do tonight?"

"The same thing we do every night Puppet Master, TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!"

>Cue cinema travesty<

And Motoko and Bateau have to fall in love and marry in the end!

there will be casualties if they mess up makoto and her guns . .
and if the tachikomas die in this AGAIN i will frigging scream . .