DreamWorks to make Ghost in the Shell live action movie
This could either turn out incredibly good, or incredibly bad. DreamWorks, thanks to the dealings of Stephen Spielberg (who isn’t necessarily signed on as director), has acquired the rights to make a live action 3D Ghost in the Shell movie. Ghost in the Shell is an anime and manga that follows the exploits of an elite counter-terrorism rogue government unit in the cyberpunk future. The integration of humans and technology (think “cyborg”) is a major theme in the series.
Naturally, I’ve been a huge fan of Ghost in the Shell ever since I first heard of it. I’ve watched both seasons of the Stand Alone Complex series twice over, along with both films and the made-for-TV movie. I’ve even read the manga, which is a rarity for me, since I generally don’t like comics (let the flaming begin). Ghost in the Shell is just such a unique, gritty vision of a technology-enabled future that, as a techie, I can’t help but feel enthralled by it. Ever since 3rd GIG aired on TV, though, I’ve been aching for another fix. An American-made live action movie wasn’t my preferred vehicle of choice for that fix, but if it’s actually better than nothing, I’ll take it. Here’s how it can be done well.
DreamWorks has to resist the urge to mess with the source material, thus screwing everything up. It needs to be set in Tokyo, not relocated to New York City or Los Angeles or whatever American film studios typically do. It must remain just as gritty and realistic as the original. If I see anything that looks like magic or impossible stunts with no basis in the technology of the series, I’m going to scream. Basically, if DreamWorks approaches this from the angle of “this’ll be a cool action/thriller flick”, then it’s going to suck. But if they approach it from the original angle, a philosophical exploration of the intersection of man and technology in the coming decades, then it has a fighting chance.
April 18th, 2008 at 13:52
And before anyone else points out my mistake, Ghost in the Shell doesn’t take place in Tokyo. It’s set in a large fictional Japanese port city. Anyway, the point I was making is that the setting shouldn’t be changed from Japan to elsewhere.
April 19th, 2008 at 01:49
I don’t think the fact that it’s set in Japan is particularly important to the series as a whole. Really, technology makes perceived distance decrease, so I would think that geographic location would play relatively little role in effecting how something like that plays out, from our perspective as viewers.
It could easily be in America where section 9 is trying to stop some plot to do something bad to the whole world or something. It’d be interesting seeings a series where they train a new section 9 that works for a different goverment, or something like that. Sort of like… the second movie? I don’t know, I can’t keep the movies straight.
April 19th, 2008 at 10:50
The culture plays a huge part of it though. I’ve never seen a movie adaptation that has shifted between continents and cultures as diverse as Japan and the USA and been successful.
April 19th, 2008 at 13:39
Besides, in Ghost in the Shell the USA is divided into three countries: the American Empire, the Russo-American Alliance, and the United States of America.