GitS Live Action Film News

Talk about the live-action Ghost in the Shell film here
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GhostLine
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Video of a convention display of WETA's "cyborg" design work. But is it a cyborg? Looks like a gynoid to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYfpqWYKBIM
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Cast photos. All looks mostly good, but Borma looks a little disturbing to me.
http://thehypedgeek.com/heres-what-the- ... look-like/
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http://imgur.com/a/cBSGd
Several photos of shooting set. Appears to be heavily influenced by Oshii's first GitS film.
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GhostLine wrote:http://imgur.com/a/cBSGd
Several photos of shooting set. Appears to be heavily influenced by Oshii's first GitS film.
The third image down reminds me of the cityscape in the Stallone Judge Dredd movie.
People tend to look at you a little strangely when they know you stuff voodoo dolls full of Ex-Lax.
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Paramount released a series of five short teasers for the new live action Ghost in the Shell film. Here are the teasers combined:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwJlqCD_6Y0
Very intriguing......
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First is "Beat" Takeshi Kitano as Aramaki. I like his careless attitude here. Who or what did he shoot?
Next is the Major (Scarlett Johansson) cautiously advancing into a room of people plugged into some network "This is just the beginning..." says a man's voice. I like the ominous music.
Third, is the walking geisha-doll, sexaroid, or gynoid. I wonder if there will be a theme of ghost-dubbing in this film?
Next is the very iconic side-shot of the Major seated awake in her bed in front of the large window. I am going to assume there will be a scene with her dropping off a building and disappearing via thermoptics....
The next scene is the most unusual to me. Here, the Major is intently touching another woman's face, not looking like there is some sort of sexual exchange, but like she is completely intrigued by something new and foreign to her. The woman seems uncomfortable a bit, saying "What are you?" That is my impression.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XdJcM542Lo
Here is a good fan edit of the teasers....integrating elements of the Oshii film.
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http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/09/30/ ... g-mr-robot
A nice article about Paramount's marketing approach. Discusses the "glitches" in the teaser bits...that somehow it is a theme in the film.

Like other articles and videos about the upcoming film, the comments section is a good read as many are vocalizing "whitewashing" in the casting of Johannsson.

I believe, apart from some of the vile judgements, there is some merit to the issue of major roles being given to Anglo/Euro characters...and there being a long history of it. Now, while I don't know what to think about many wanting to indict Scarlett personally for misappropriation of culture...it is wondered if an Asian actress had been considered at all for the role. However, it is noted that Scarlett visually makes for a good looking Major and to me looks a lot like Motoko in SAC.

I also note that we do not particularly know what Motoko truly has looked like in her true genetic form. In fact, in SSS, she has entered into many forms of cyberbodies. We learn in the 1995 GitS film that her preferred cyberbody is a common model...and in the 3 minute mid-act scene, she encounters others in the same likeness...including a shop mannequin (unless she is having an existential hallucination...i.e. confusing plane with an angel).

Given, her name Motoko Kusanagi lends to the fact that she is Japanese...which is the main catalyst for the scandal. I believe this is why her name in the new film is just "The Major". But there has also been a Japanese actress purportedly cast as her mother...so perhaps Scarlett is actually playing a cyberbody with a Japanese woman's cyberbrain. We shall see.

If you think about it, GitS isn't exactly ethnically diverse...even though it's main tagline is:

IN THE NEAR FUTURE - CORPORATE NETWORKS REACH OUT TO THE STARS, ELECTRONS AND LIGHT FLOW THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.
THE ADVANCE OF COMPUTERISATION, HOWEVER, HAS NOT YET WIPED OUT NATIONS AND ETHNIC GROUPS.

The creators of the film say that GitS is an international film...and even though Japanese society is not a melting pot and is reflected in their anime/media, GitS intention is imagining a future where acute ethnicity loses its definition due to cross-cultural exposure and integration in the interwebs. Perhaps a step toward this is in the US releasing their controlling stake of the interwebs.

And maybe that's the issue all along: whose culture becomes the dominant dog when we are integrating globally? In the 90's, in the US, it was all about multi-cultural integration, but now it seems like many are being drawn into their respective cultures for shelter...even gender lines are being drawn. Don't know what's changed...or maybe the realization that nothing has changed.

It appears that Production I.G is cool with the casting...as is Oshii from which it appears Rupert Sanders has taken much inspiration and tone. Oshii, although borrowing a character from Masamune Shirow, adopts Motoko as his own child and even transfers her essence and look onto other characters...such as Kusanagi in The Sky Crawlers, not to mention the look of Khara in Garm Wars (a Euro actress). So, I would think that could largely have an effect on the casting choice...perhaps.

Anyway, here is what a few millennial Japanese say about white actors playing Japanese roles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DhoBuU1Dtc I think it is telling that they are largely not aware of the struggle of diversity, but then again, their culture is top dog of where they are at. They did a double-take when posed with the question concerning whites taking ethnic roles, but initially weren't perturbed that Scarlett was playing The Major. In fact, they were very welcome to the idea.
But I think some caught on to the idea that really it comes to money...the need for a studio these days to cast a bankable star.

And I think this is why diversity in Hollywood is not improving in a sense. TV...and other media...they have a manageable budget and can take risks. Can't do that in Hollywood if you want to make money. Money talks. There was a great segment in 60 Minutes about China's economic influence on how Hollywood makes their films to appeal to their markets. They won't take risks that will shut them out of China theaters. My point is that if you want to get your film distributed, then it must meet their formulaic parameters...and that means not taking risks of putting an unknown in the top slot. My guess is that of there truly was a high-profile Asian actress that can make the studio salivate and see dollars...there you go. But then who? The only Asian actress that I know has reached arm's length of international draw, including U.S. would maybe be Lucy Liu. Fan Bingbing, a huge star in China, could likely be close. But as for depth, Scarlett can really bring that melancholy that I don't know who else could. Perhaps Rinko Kikuchi...but would she have done another sci-fi PLUS does she have the box office draw?

Right now GitS is getting the right amount of buzz. Yes, a lot of it is negative, but like they say, "There is no such thing as bad press." Now it will be up to Paramount to figure out how to steer the attention into filling theater seats. On the other side, it will be up to those who want change to speak with their dollars or not.

Ultimately, it will weigh on how good a film it will be. Many are impressed with the visuals in Snow White & the Huntsman, but hated the story itself. Rupert Sanders, I hope, will consider that. The Ghostbusters reboot was a good example: got lots of negative press concerning an all-female cast and reboot of a very MUCH LOVED original. Without seeing the film, many empathetic and sympathetic to the female cast, tried to rally filmgoers to support diversity and see the film, but once reviews came in, it ended in box office tragedy.

Same can be said for fans of GitS who WANT this film to succeed. I'll admit I want it to do very well, but I won't go nutso to defend a film that I haven't seen yet. I tried to like Attack of the Clones...and I just couldn't. I think it is prudent to let the film speak for itself before anything else. Overall, I hope it's a good film whether it is "successful or not" because it is something for us fans to enjoy...even if it seems to remain relegated to being a niche property outside Japan.

Now, if one feels determined to NOT see the film because of the casting issue, by all means do so. Perhaps it will open the dialogue of Hollywood casting.
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Post by GhostLine »

On November 13th, Paramount is throwing a "Ghost in the Shell Exclusive Event" in Tokyo in anticipation for the upcoming release. Scarlett Johannson will be attending.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interes ... er/.108163

In other news, Paramount recently threw another screening event at Viacom HQ in New York, hoping to rouse new interest from the media after a slew of box-office failures that Paramount produced. Those invited saw buzzworthy teases of new films, but also were exposed to a "first-ever look" at Ghost in the Shell...this is what Variety reported:
But the evening wasn’t just about Oscar bait. There was also a first-ever look at “The Ghost in the Shell,” an anime adaptation featuring Scarlett Johansson as a cyborg policewoman, who shoots up criminal gatherings while wearing a skintight jumpsuit. The footage featured kinetic action sequences with Johansson in full-“Lucy” mode, mowing down armies of bad guys.
http://variety.com/2016/film/news/marti ... 201902965/
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Brief article on adapting GitS...
According to the Executive Producer Michael Costigan in a recent interview with IGN, what we will see is less of a straight adaption of any single story and more of “a portal into this universe.”
Producer Avi Arad, who has some experience with translating complex universes of characters and stories to the big screen with Marvel, was even more explicit, saying “When we first started talking about getting rights for adapting [‘Ghost in the Shell], the creators went out of their way to suggest that we don’t try to adapt one thing. When they were adapting it into ‘Stand Alone Complex’ they chose and felt like they had to tell their own story with expectation that it felt like ‘Ghost in the Shell.’ Our hope is that our process will get us there.”
http://www.cbr.com/ghost-in-the-shell-p ... spiration/
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New interview with Scarlett!!
http://collider.com/scarlett-johansson- ... netic-body
Good read.
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A very thorough article on all aspects of production for the film:
http://collider.com/ghost-in-the-shell- ... r-avi-arad
Here, Avi Arad mentions that the film WILL NOT be featuring The Puppetmaster or The Laughing Man. They are going to focus on Kuze from GitS: 2nd Gig! The story will be partly inspired from the Affection episode, if you recall was about...:
Batou and Togusa test eight potential new recruits for Section 9. Each man is paired off to create four different teams, and each team is tasked with tracking the Major. However, the Major proves to be a difficult target to track, and eventually she loses all four teams attempting to track her. Shortly after losing the last team, Kusanagi unexpectedly loses all communication and finds herself lost in a seemingly empty part of the city. While trying to locate her team, she happens across a shop that stores people's external memories, and learns of the story of two child cyberbodies carefully preserved in the shop. The bodies once belong to a boy and a girl who were involved in a terrible plane crash, and eventually the two children became the only survivors of the wreck. While the boy was in the hospital he learned that he was paralyzed, except for his left hand, which he used to make origami cranes non-stop for the girl. One day, the girl, who had been in a coma since arriving in the hospital, unexpectedly went downhill fast, and was moved to the OR. The boy believed that she had died, but two years later she was brought to the hospital alive and well in an effort to convince the boy to switch to a full cyborg body, after previous attempts by a relative and doctor had failed. The boy was reluctant to do so at first because the girl had difficulty with the fine movement skills of her new body, but he eventually relented and went full-cyborg. Years later the boy, who had been searching for the girl since he left the hospital, happened across her child issue cyborg body in a lab and took it upon himself to preserve it. When Kusanagi inquires as to the current whereabouts of the boy, she learns that he was shipped out in the last days of the war, and has not been heard from since. Before Kusanagi leaves, she carefully folds a sugar cube wrapper into an origami crane and places it in the car beside the boy, saying "I'll bet that even now...that girl is still searching for the first boy she ever loved." 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_G ... x_episodes
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Post by Freitag »

GhostLine wrote:Brief article on adapting GitS...
According to the Executive Producer Michael Costigan in a recent interview with IGN, what we will see is less of a straight adaption of any single story and more of “a portal into this universe.”
Producer Avi Arad, who has some experience with translating complex universes of characters and stories to the big screen with Marvel, was even more explicit, saying “When we first started talking about getting rights for adapting [‘Ghost in the Shell], the creators went out of their way to suggest that we don’t try to adapt one thing. When they were adapting it into ‘Stand Alone Complex’ they chose and felt like they had to tell their own story with expectation that it felt like ‘Ghost in the Shell.’ Our hope is that our process will get us there.”
http://www.cbr.com/ghost-in-the-shell-p ... spiration/
I really like this approach to it. It reminds me of Peter Jacksons approach to the Lord of the Rings. There was just too much material in the books to put on screen so he cut everything that didn't have to do with the journey of the Ring. And giving Glofindles role to Arwen was not too bad, the book is more "realistic" because people do not come and go with convenient timing, but we expect movies to have a certain continuity to them.

The GitS universe is also so full of details; I wonder what he'll pull out and emphasize? I'm getting really stocked for this.
People tend to look at you a little strangely when they know you stuff voodoo dolls full of Ex-Lax.
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