Dreamworks to Adapt Ghost in the Shell

Ghost in the Shell is one of those mastpeices of Anime like Akira that hold up over the years. It is among my favourite animated films of all time.

Now Dreamworks is trying to make it a live action film again.

First Showing

DreamWorks has hired screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis to adapt the Ghost in the Shell manga into a futuristic live-action 3D police thriller.

As with any film with as many rich visuals and effects, I worry that the undertaking to make a faithful adaptation will cost more than Avatar, and therein lies its risk to make its money back.

I personally am excited to see some of these animated wonders be given life as a live action feature and I don’t jump to the conclusion that they will rape the Asian stylings out of the film like everyone assumes the Akira adaptation will do.

Not saying they won’t, but I have faith that if they are choosing these as source material, they will want to be faithful to it to some extent.

This project was shelved when Speilberg tried to roll the ball, so who knows if this has more legs or not.

I hope it does!

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41 thoughts on “Dreamworks to Adapt Ghost in the Shell

  1. Just fucking great(sarcasm). Another classic anime film that Hollywood wants to butcher. Did they not learn from “Speed Racer”, “Dragonball Evolution”, or “Astro Boy”?

  2. Now is this film going to be based off the anime movie or the manga? I had to watch the anime a couple of times to get the idea of what was going on and enjoyed it. I tried to read the manga once and visually I enjoyed it but for some reason could not get into it.
    I think one anime that could transition well into a live action comedic action sci fi film would be “Trigun”, loved the series and the manga. That would be awesome if they made a live action film on that.

      1. Im just saying this movie is impossible to do financially, keanu reeves recently commented that Cowboy Beboop is too expensive to do and studios will not risk investing huge amount of money to do a movie like this…so I guess GITS will meet the same fate

      2. yeah..if they did go on with this i hope they dont messed this up like Dragonball…animes like Akira and GITS have very complex storyline and a live-action adaptation like Watchmen would be enough for me

  3. Have not read the original manga. From what I hear, it’s similar to Akira in the aspect that the movies and series was only part of a larger story. I loved both movies and enjoyed the series. This has a lot of promise for a live action adaptation and hope to see this happen.

  4. I thought the Wachowski brothers already adapted this as THE MATRIX

    here’s the character breakdown:

    Trinity (matrix): The Major (GITS)
    Morpheus: Batou
    Neo: Batou’s pet dog/nothing, Keanu Reeves sucks

    Let’s not forget that GITS singlehandedly invented BULLETTIME special effects, nuff said.

      1. You’re right, bullettime was done before ghost in the shell, but the style that bullettime is presented with in the matrix is nalmost identic to it’s former, Ghost in the Shell.

    1. And aside from bullettime the whole “living in a technological dreamworld where reality and digital crap converge into one big dystopian sweatlodge that features hot women and badass martial artists who wear the tiniest of frameless sunglasses (Batou did it while Morpheus was still a little human energyfarm toy)

  5. anime in to live action movies is a bad idea imo
    sure robotech will be decent looking do to what transformers did for robots…..but some films i dont see as epic as others…akira is cool but really the religious cult like way that normal citizens reacted to the the main characters was retarded and not something i expect most americans will get…ghost in the shell was decemt but in no way do i think the north american audience would buy it.

      1. In my opinion, they should never have tried to make a live-action Dragonball. If anyone ever manages to make a faithful DBZ film, I can almost guarantee you it will be a CG animated one.

  6. So I was extremely excited about the Blood: The Last Vampire movie adaptation into live action, but damned did I see a couple nights ago and was sorely disappointed.

    Despite that, three of my favorite anime movies (not including series) are Akira, Battle Angel Alita (Gunnm), and Ghost in the Shell (like the sequel a lot to), and I have high hopes for all these being adapted into live action. If they ended up sucking then oh well, still got the animes to keep me happy.

    1. Totally with u in this one. Love Blood anime back then. So strikingly beautiful. Watching the movie adaptation though like being shot in the head. Totally dissapointed. The story dull, the acting bland, the characters miscast (especially Saya, somehow i don’t like the actress who playing it, something amiss about her), the CG looks cheap and forced. Hollywood once again let me down with such adaptation… So i’m not holding my breath out with recent news, even when high profile guy attached to it.

    1. I don’t think so. Anime doesn’t have the same recognition as comic books. You don’t have to read an Iron man Thor Captain American comic book etc, to know who they are. Are there many well known animes out there?

      1. Bleach. One Piece. Naruto. Mobile Suit Gundam. Dragonball Z. As for that last one, the show was poor in many areas, but it was a very, very influential comic. It really pushed comics and anime and directly influenced The Matrix. I think it’s even influenced today’s live-action TV in a number of ways. That or it was miles ahead and our TV just sort of caught up.

  7. Ghost in the shell shouldn’t cost crazy money. The environments in the anime are very urban and not terribly futuristic. The only visuall effects would be the tank at the end and effects for a few scenes that showcase cyborgs.

  8. Never liked the original manga and thought the anime movie sucked. But there were some good ideas. I loved the anime series though. I wouldn’t mind seing this made into a live action film.

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