Ghost In The Shell Live Action Movie On The Way

There was a time when I thought anime was pretty damn fascinating; the visuals were amazing and the stories were imaginative, and I tried my best to get into it. Unfortunately, it never really stuck with me… I suppose I just got tired of not understanding what the hell was going on in any of the damn movies. I still like seeing animation being used to tell more mature stories, but anime all started to blur together for me after a while.

Anyway, it seems that one of the most popular anime films of all-time is about to get the live action treatment. Ghost In The Shell, based on the manga by Masamune Shirow, is about the idea of robots and artificial intelligence becoming sentient and attaining a soul. Total nerd stuff right? Production I.G., the company who did the original Ghost In The Shell, Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence, and also the animated segment from Kill Bill Vol. 1 (among other things), have picked up the rights for a live action version of the original. Details are scarce at the moment, but it sounds like it will indeed be a remake as opposed to a continuation of the storyline. I can’t wait to see how this turns out. Will it be the next Blade Runner?

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Comments (15)

  1. I think it has potential. Not only is it a great story but I’m concerned that an anime company is going to do a live action movie.

  2. The animated segment was my favourite part of the Kill Bill movies. Unfortunately everytime I would check out some other anime, it would never reach that level of ‘artistic harshness’. It reminded me of some of the Wolverine stories in Japan, which were awesome.

    Are these Ghost in the Shell movies on level with that?

  3. By “artistic harshness” do you mean graphic violence, or just a gritty-looking artwork style? If you’re looking for violent animated movies, there’s plenty out there. Ghost In The Shell is definitely a bit different in tone and style than the Kill Bill thing though.

    However, Production IG did a few of the Animatrix shorts, which you might like. They also did a movie called Blood: The Last Vampire, which I think I saw but I don’t remember much about it.

  4. The thing I liked about was the way the action was done. When it has that silent score and it feels very kinetic and frenetic where its slowed down and sped up, and all that really registers is the impact and the hits of the swords. I liked that.

  5. This guy can’t be named Masamune though… It’s gotta be a nice little nerd reference.

  6. it will prob be a gd film

  7. I loved the anime so much. Greatest anime of all time. Now all i care about if they make this movie is for them to choose the perfect MAJOR. If they get her wrong then its a no chance in hell for good success. Hopefully they don’t butcher and kill this franchise like they did with the dragon ball franchise. Please don’t make it crap

  8. Who could play the major. none of the stick ladies from hollywood would do it right, i’d almost say an athlete should play her because shes got sucha warrioress’ type body.

  9. If they dont get the majors character right they are going to screw up the whole movie

  10. i think the movie is gonna be crap seirously!!!! 20th century fox and all those other movie should stick to there own crap and leave the anime movies to the japaneese i mean come on!!! look at the dragon ball movie!!! it looks like its gonna bea a peice of S@%T!!! and im pretty sure everyone can agree with me

  11. the movie is probably gonna suck like the dragon ball movie..im jesus i would know. i know all and i know this movies gonna suck…. an now there making an astro boy movie oh boy……….. >_< this movies gonna suck 8====D just you wait and see

  12. I’m a huge Ghost in The Shell fan and i think a live-action film will be awesome. I hear Speilberg will be directing it. which in my opinion is great. he’s one hell of a director so i’m sure he can pull it off. and ya, like everyone else is saying, if they don’t find the right person to play the Major it wont be as good….but hell i’ll go see it NEVERTHELESS!!!

  13. Okay, for those unfamiliar to the Ghost in the Shell(aka “GITS”) franchise: It has a cult following. The original movie, which came out in 1995 was the visual inspiration for the Matrix; the makers saw it and thought “let’s make something like that in live action!.” The result is that there are numerous videos on Youtube showing scenes from GITS and identical scenes from The Matrix. There is also a second GITS movie, GITS: Innocence, a two season anime that more closely follows the manga (or so I’ve heard; for those of you unfamiliar with anime in general, manga are comics), called Ghost in the Shell: Stand alone Complex (AKA: GITS:SAC), and a GITS: SAC movie, called GITS:SAC- Solid State Society. Many anime fans are afraid of what hollywood will do to the franchise, do to the fact that it has many philosophical themes to it that they fear might get taken out, not to mention the fear of the characters/ concept in general being “Americanized.”

    To my fellow GITS fans: There are 3 reasons why I feel this movie may not totally fail. 1) Spielberg is a fan. It was for that reason that Dreamworks got the rights to make the live action in the first place. I find it hard to believe that anyone who considers themselves a fan of Ghost in the Shell would allow anything bad to happen. 2) If they screw up, those who don’t know better will think it’s a Matrix rip-off. 3) From what I’ve heard, the movie’s going to be a CG live action, which is, like, the ideal format for GITS.

    Of course, I won’t be entirely happy unless the movie meets the following critera: 1) the ENTIRE Section 9 team (Chief Aramaki, Major Kusanagi, Batou, Togasa, Paz, Saito Borma, Ishikawa, and maybe Proto) is present. 2) they are played be suitable actors. 3) the movie takes place in Japan. 4) the plot is consistent with the rest of the franchise and contains at least some level of the same kind of philisophical themes. However, if this is absent and the movie is simply “section 9 stops evil terrorist group from doing something evil”, that would be acceptable, I guess…

  14. I would suggest Jolene Blaylock as the Major. Only actress I can think of that could pull it off. She did a great job playing Tpol on Enterprise.

    What do you think?

    I will admit Angelina Jolie is a good choice otherwise but I dont see her as the major somehow.

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