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Dreamworks goes for GITS

Mr March

By Mr March
in Anime or Science Fiction

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Mr March BOMBA!

Mr March

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Now this is something interesting. Spielberg's Dreamworks has obtained the GITS rights and is making a live-action movie. They mention 3D, which I assume means silly-glasses-required 3D :) Read here:

Dreamworks to make 3-D Ghost In the Shell (on comingsoon.net)

DreamWorks to Make 3-D Ghost in the Shell

Source: Variety April 15, 2008

DreamWorks Pictures has acquired rights to the Japanese manga "Ghost in the Shell" with plans to adapt the futuristic police thriller as a 3-D live-action feature, reports Variety.

The story follows the exploits of a member of a covert ops unit of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission that specializes in fighting technology-related crime.

Created by Masamune Shirow, "Ghost in the Shell" was first published in 1989. It went on to generate two additional manga editions, three anime film adaptations, an anime TV series and three video games. The second anime film, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, was released in the U.S. by DreamWorks in 2004.

Avi Arad, Ari Arad and Steven Paul of Seaside Entertainment are attached to produce and brought the project to the studio. Jamie Moss has been hired to write the adaptation.

"'Ghost in the Shell' is one of my favorite stories," Spielberg said. "It's a genre that has arrived, and we enthusiastically welcome it to DreamWorks."

DreamWorks president of production Adam Goodman said "Ghost in the Shell" is a property "that epitomizes 3-D live-action motion picture possibilities."

EXO Super Dimension Member

EXO

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I use to enjoy Spielberg news before, but I feel like he's going to hand it off to someone like Michael Bay. big fat meh...

sketchley Galactic Diva

sketchley

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Spielberg does good stuff. But, I don't think the mood of Ghost in the Shell fits with the humanism that his movies are generally themed with. GitS is about humans who have given up their humanity, after all. I'm not going to hold my breath on this one, as the majority of Hollywood adaptations of late (not necessarily of anime) have been disappointing.

bsu legato SMS Squadron Leader

bsu legato

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Dreamworks acquiring GITS is probably a step in the right direction, but I'm not really going to get worked up one way or the other until there's some more names actually attached to this. Is Spielberg himself going to direct this, or is it just being made under his production banner? Are they adapting the bleak, boring Oshii version of GITS, or will it be more along the lines of Shirow's original works (or, god forbid, Man Machine Interface)?

bsu legato SMS Squadron Leader

bsu legato

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as the majority of Hollywood adaptations of late (not necessarily of anime) have been disappointing.

Yeah, that No Country For Old Men sure missed the point of Cormac McCarthy's tome. And PTA totally raped Oil! and has Upton Sinclair spinning in his grave. :rolleyes:

eugimon Super Dimension Member

eugimon

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Yeah, that No Country For Old Men sure missed the point of Cormac McCarthy's tome. And PTA totally raped Oil! and has Upton Sinclair spinning in his grave. :rolleyes:

no no no, you're entirely missing the point of being negative! :lol:

Actually, I think GitS is right up Spielbergs alley. GitS isn't a simple tale of "humans who gave up their humanity" it's a much more rich world where the very concept of "humanity" is explored as machines and people move closer towards each other, the questions becoming, what is a soul and what is free choice? This idea has been explored by him before in AI and to some extent in Minority Report. Besides, GitS slower pacing, thoughtful dialogue and action pieces are really tailor made for Spielberg.

My question is whether Spielberg will continue to work with Johnny to score this or will he go with a different composer? I'm hoping he breaks with tradition and doesn't go with Williams again.

Edited by eugimon
Noyhauser Pineapple Eater

Noyhauser

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no no no, you're entirely missing the point of being negative! :lol:

Actually, I think GitS is right up Spielbergs alley. GitS isn't a simple tale of "humans who gave up their humanity" it's a much rich world where the very concept of "humanity" is explored as machines and people move closer towards each other, the questions becoming, what is a soul and what is free choice? This idea has been explored by him before in AI and to some extent in Minority Report. Besides, GitS slower pacing, thoughtful dialogue and action pieces are really tailor made for Spielberg.

I agree. If anything it is about humanity in a different age, exploring the various new avenues of consciousness available to them. In alot of ways its not that much different from Senior Spielbergo's AI.

Fort Max Pineapple Eater

Fort Max

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There would seem to be one natural choice for the soundtrack, and its about bloody time someone took notice of Yoko Kanno in Hollywood. :)

My thoughts exactly and if anything can get her noticed in the west then it's involvement in a big Spielberg flick.

eugimon Super Dimension Member

eugimon

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I think an actor of Tom Hanks' caliber would be best suited as a Tachikoma.

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not but I completely agree with you. Some of the deepest philosophical debates happen amoungst the tachikomas but simultaneously they're very naieve in how they view humanity, themselves and the relationship between each other.

Chronocidal Super Dimension Member

Chronocidal

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Well, despite my appreciation of the series (movies don't even compare to SAC imo), I can see how this could go two ways.. either very good, or very, very bad... I think it'll depend on a few things..

1. Soundtrack. JW might not be a great choice on his own, but if he stuck to the feel of the series, I could deal (just please not the movie soundtracks.. :ph34r:). Now, if they actually do the right thing, and have a cross-culture team pulling from all sources at once (JW, Kanno, Origa, Gabriela Robin, etc) I can see the soundtrack being all kinds of win. Top it off with a good dose of Russian/Latin, and you could have a serious audio triumph. I don't quite know why, but the Italian/Russian/Japanese/English mixing of SAC music always gives me chills.

2. Use of CGI. I know this is meant to be a tech story, but if they overuse the blue-screening, it'll ruin it. The story is supposed to be set in a not-so-far-off future, so I hope they use existing architecture to some extent.

3. Actors. To tell the truth here, I'm not sure if it would matter if the Major was Japanese or not...it would obviously work well if she was, but given the styling of the show, do we know for certain whether the synthetic body she has is patterned after any particular ethnic group? The styling in the first GITS movie actually kind of reminded me of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture for the faces. :blink:

Edit: Ok, nevermind about the CGI and actors then. Didn't know if 3D meant something like Shrek or not ^_^ If they're going with CGI, they may just stick with the series voice actors then. hmmm.

Edited by Chronocidal
Capt Hungry Skull Leader's Lackey

Capt Hungry

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I'm guessing that by 3D they mean silly glasses as was mentioned before.

It will be interesting to see where this goes.

:huh:

electric indigo SMS Squadron Leader

electric indigo

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I think 3D live-action actually means what Mr. March mentions, i.e. living actors and 3D-glasses, which seems to be the latest trick in trying to get the people back into the cinema.

I don't know why the majority here assumes that it will keep the japanese setting, cast, let alone the music. And by the way, the main characters in the manga are not looking very japanese, either, other than their names.

eriku SMS Squadron Leader

eriku

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I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not but I completely agree with you. Some of the deepest philosophical debates happen amoungst the tachikomas but simultaneously they're very naieve in how they view humanity, themselves and the relationship between each other.

I was imagining Buxom Buddies Tom Hanks voice coming out of a Tachikoma. He could switch between that and Philidelphia Tom Hanks and Castaway Tom Hanks as the situation dictates.

I'm still surprised he didn't end up in the Transformers movie.

jwinges Bridge Bunny

jwinges

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There would seem to be one natural choice for the soundtrack, and its about bloody time someone took notice of Yoko Kanno in Hollywood. :)

If they don't use Yoko Kanno for nearly all the music I will boycott this theme. She is by far the best music composer for this film. Anybody else would pale by comparison.

Also I really hope they can get the dubbed or original japanses actors to do the Tachicomas'.

This story needs to stay in Japan and not be set in America or Europe. America and Europe are the evil empires in the GITS world.

Edited by jwinges
GogDog Sharon Apple Concert Attendee

GogDog

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Also saw this from the article:

Avi Arad, Ari Arad and Steven Paul of Seaside Entertainment are attached to produce and brought the project to the studio. Jamie Moss has been hired to write the adaptation.

I IMDB'd Ari Arad, and his production credits include The 2003 Hulk movie, Blade the series, and The 2004 Punisher movie. Does not bode well....

:(

GogDog Sharon Apple Concert Attendee

GogDog

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Also the Spiderman trilogy

According to IMDB, he only worked on a Spiderman cartoon...

*edit* And a SM video game, too.

**Edit again

I just another article that said he also indeed produced the 3 Spiderman films, along with the Fantastic 4 movies and the X-men movies. Not sure why the IMDB page I was looking at didn't list that.

Edited by GogDog
eugimon Super Dimension Member

eugimon

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Ummm...this is going to be a 3-D project so only voice actors...

uhmmm... they could go the route of some big budget CGI 3D movies and do the whole "virtual actor" thing like beowulf.

eugimon Super Dimension Member

eugimon

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As GogDog mentioned, the article specifically says "live action."

well there you go, I needless retconned myself. :p Tom hanks in a pink bustier with a purple wig it is.

bsu legato SMS Squadron Leader

bsu legato

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As GogDog mentioned, the article specifically says "live action."

Don't you go dragging your fact-based agenda into this. We were just getting ready to complain at length about the motion-captured CGI 3D movie with the non-Yokko Kano score and Tom Hanks voicing all the lead characters. Now what the hell are we supposed to do with the evening?

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