Production IG is in negotations for a Live Action GitS film

Discussions about the first film (Ghost in the Shell) and the second (Innocence)

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Jeff Georgeson
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GitS-Hollywood to be based on the manga

Post by Jeff Georgeson »

I've just read in an interview with Laeta Kalogridis that the new GitS film will be based on the original manga and not Oshii's film. I suppose that opens up more possibilities for plots and stories, rather than seeing Hollywood's version of the Puppetmaster ... on the other hand, it's possible this means the story could be anything the writers and director want to dream up, with the characters and Section 9 being the only similarity. Which isn't to say it couldn't still be a good film, but at what point does it stop really being GitS? When they move it to the US? When all the political and philosophical juiciness goes away in favor of Terminator-style action-action-action fight-fight-fight?

You can find the interview (which is mostly about other things) at moviesonline.ca.

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Post by Freitag »

Depending on their target audience there is one core story element that they may have to change.

The whole exploration of being. In the Japanese (both Manga and Anime) that exploration starts with some common cultural assumptions. They basically have an "animist" philosophy and the 'ghost' is something both akin to Soul AND Spirit. It's something Togusa might not have (the Major speculates on this) and it is something that both the Puppeteer and the Fuchi/Tachi komas come to acquire.

Western thought assumes that humans all have those and that non humans do not.

So if they are after a wider western audience, that whole exploration will have to be tweaked.

And if they drop it, well then we're left with an action flick.


It took 3 attempts at filming to get Lord of the Rings right. We have to assume that it may take just as long to get this right. Although we can hope for a bullseye the first time, I don't think we can assume it.
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Post by gareth »

"Depending on their target audience there is one core story element that they may have to change."

"Western thought assumes that humans all have those and that non humans do not."

I got the impression that interest in an adaptation of GITS would necessarily incorporate the philosophical ideals of the original. As for target audience, I think perhaps your approximations of "Western" and (presumably) "Eastern" thought is somewhat of a generalisation. The inclusion of Donna Haraway as a character in Innocence surely is contentious with regards to any definitive split in ideologies - to me it was the universal nature of the ideals of GITS that made it interesting in the first place.

I guess it's a question of how much faith a director has in his audience and how strong his vision, but tweaking the ideology to "suit" a Western audience seems a bit much.
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Post by GhostLine »

"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."

i'm really interested in what she will put up for a script...i think she is going to make a good approach to this. i wonder how much input shirow masamune will have in this....
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Post by Freitag »

gareth wrote:I guess it's a question of how much faith a director has in his audience and how strong his vision, but tweaking the ideology to "suit" a Western audience seems a bit much.
No, I'm going with the fact that your average movie viewer doens't know squat about eastern thought.

Here is a for instance. When I was watching My Neighbor Totoro, I fully thought that the younger sister was gone forever and they may never find the body. But it turns out that culturally the shrines beside the road that the elder sister is running along are a clue that she is on not just the right path to her goal, but a protected path and that her sister will be just fine.

So that set of scenes in the movie created anxiety for me, but that was not the intent.

Cultural relevance comes not from expanding your horizons, but from using a common roadmap. If the audience cannot identify with the motivations of the characters, then the movie will fail.
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Post by gareth »

Granted, but I still think that in terms of GITS it is not necessarily a problem.

Doubtless, the presence of Eastern sensibilities throughout both the films and series is undeniable, but then there is also a wealth of Western influence. Look at the entirety of the first season of SAC, which took a supposedly Western trope and applied it to a scenario recognisable throughout societies whether based upon Eastern traditions or not.

If you then, par example, take into account the influence of Gibson's Neuromancer on the GITS universe, I do think that there are universal aspects present that make it intriguing to a Western audience ignorant of Eastern ideologies. Of course there will be, necessarily, instances in which a knowledge (one which I do not presume to posess) of cultural reference points will be useful, but I believe the most significant portion of the GITS ideology to be universally compelling.

It seems strange to me that you say "cultural relevance does not come from expanding your horizons, but from using a common roadmap". I think that, culturally, the world that GITS inhabits is closely enough aligned with ours that cultural referencing is a matter not of contrasting locational cultural references (i.e. the orient/occident) but of the relationship between a universal, shared culture (perhaps something that the notion of cyberspace best illustrates).
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Post by Freitag »

I suspect that Western fans of GitS are a special subset of Westerners that have a better than average grasp of what traditions happen to our East.
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Post by GhostLine »

well, i just watched Shutter Island screenwritten by Laeta Kalogridis' and directed by Scorsese...and thought it was mind-blowingly wonderful!
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Post by marto_motoko »

GhostLine wrote:well, i just watched Shutter Island screenwritten by Laeta Kalogridis' and directed by Scorsese...and thought it was mind-blowingly wonderful!
The execution was superb, specifically in the area that mattered most - subtlety of conversation, the atmospheric undertones accompanying the character's minds and emotions. The soundtrack was great too.


Lets hope for the best.

I suspect that Western fans of GitS are a special subset of Westerners that have a better than average grasp of what traditions happen to our East.
Freitag, very well put. Most of the fans of Ghost in the Shell in the west are pretty well versed if not at least on culture, then certainly on cinematographic point of view on how the East presents their themes and ideas.


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Post by Epiphany »

I just hope they get casting right. Doesn't matter what's written in the screenplay if they don't get the characters right.

I think Michelle Rodrigeuz would be the perfect Major 8)
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news?

Post by GhostLine »

i cannot find any news on the Live Action project since the Kalogridis article. IMDB lists it as in development. I wonder how it's coming along?
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Post by Whisper »

I don't think you should worry any about western audiences getting it or not.

Just because Ghost in the Shell is an anime and that it's widely known (or not, I do not KNOW, I'm only speculating and I can be wrong) to Eastern audiences doesn't necessarily matter.

I'd argue that the real problem isn't that Western audiences won't "get it" so much as Western audiences don't have enough of it.

You can't pay attention, let alone fully understand something you've never attempted or allowed yourself to understand.

It's like when the Major went scuba-diving.

How can you claim to understand that which you do not pursue?

Whether this live action film catches or not is irrelevent, you'll always have the source material. Someone out there wants this to be, to have a chance. Whether it goes ahead and blooms really isn't going to make a difference. If it fails, it doesn't necessarily mean it's never going to succeed.

The real tragedy is if the fans lose faith in it. If the fans wipe their hands of it and no one pursues a "better direction" to take it in, it will wither and die, regardless of whether the film is a success or not.

It's interesting when you think about it. But as much as I like the anime Cowboy Bebop, I feel the director's "I cannot envision a way to expand upon the source material" to be nothing more than a sugarcoated cop-out.

Consider this: Media that seeks to mimic life has life-like qualities.

To wrap a story up with a bow, "they lived happily ever after" or "rode forlornly into the sunset" without any inkling to pursue the story is literary suicide... or.. homicide.. litericide!

After the 1995 GitS film, what happened?

The evolution of a series.
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Post by marto_motoko »

That's poignant, but deathly accurate.

Without a prevailing afterthought to the matter, it is true murder of a virtually crafted life.

Beyond the issues expressed in the series, a tomorrow came regardless of the screen. Major went somewhere, Batou did something, Gabu was purchased, things came to.

That's why I enjoyed hearing that Oshii didn't say he's done with the series, but instead simply confirmed that "for now, I've said all I wanted to say." It was direct without being damnating to a potential future.



Still, some news would be good. :(

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Post by Whisper »

marto_motoko wrote:That's poignant, but deathly accurate.

Without a prevailing afterthought to the matter, it is true murder of a virtually crafted life.

Beyond the issues expressed in the series, a tomorrow came regardless of the screen. Major went somewhere, Batou did something, Gabu was purchased, things came to.

That's why I enjoyed hearing that Oshii didn't say he's done with the series, but instead simply confirmed that "for now, I've said all I wanted to say." It was direct without being damnating to a potential future.



Still, some news would be good. :(

mm
Thank you.

Being direct without damning a potential future I think is the whole key to Ghost in the Shell. It sets it apart (Or maybe just strengthens it) in the Cyberpunk genre.

As long as there is a will to grow, the society really isn't dystopian. (Ironic note, my spellcheck doesn't recognize 'dystopian' as a word and tries to replace it with 'utopian.' :roll: )

It's been a year since my last message, and as far as I know there's been no news. Hopefully the future has something in store for us.

I'm hopeful towards a potential future.
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Post by John_234 »

Something exciting about all this, is if you track the various media forms of GITS, the anime and manga releases bounce concepts off each other. 1.5 being turned into SSS, small references to things found in the other series. It's going to be interesting what could happen if two different canons are combined.
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