Seems that the cyberpunk, uber-futuristic Japanese manga series Ghost in the Shell is going to get all kinds of Americanized in a live-action 3D re-imagining. That sound you're now hearing is the nerd community hive-mind collectively crying, “NOOOO” into the darkness of their mother's basements. At this point, I've sat for about 15 minutes just trying to make up words to describe how much I don't want this to happen, but nothing is coming to me that would properly convey just how face-palm-erific this idea is.
I have never read the Ghost in the Shell manga, but I have seen both films and several bits of the anime series and it's all really great stuff, especially the 1995 adaptation. The animation is awesome, the story is deep and intriguing, and there's boat loads of really awesome tech that for this new hot dog version will surely just get farmed out to some CGI house who will pump out something good enough to be called “better looking than the Matrix sequels” and then call it a day.
Variety reports that Laeta Kalogridis, who penned Scorcese's latest Shutter Island, will be adapting from the manga, giving a sliver of hope to the production as she also adapted the Russian horror piece Night Watch, which was really quite an awesome movie. Her resume is a little spotty, but there's enough good to outweigh my slight reservations about her.
I apologize for being the skeptic about Americanized Japanese properties, but with such great adaptations already in existence, wouldn't you rather just enjoy those? Potentially this could be incredible, but that's what I said about Terminator: Salvation. For now, I'm hoping this gets stuck right where the just as infuriating Akira adaptation is trapped....development hell.
