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Ghost in the Shell Movie (Live Action)

Scarlett Johansson offered $10 million by DreamWorks for the lead role.

I'm hoping this turns out to be decent, but I can't say I'm optimistic.

Comments

  • I think Scarlett can pull off a passable Major. Who do you think could play a decent Batou?
  • I think Scarlett can pull off a passable Major. Who do you think could play a decent Batou?

    Knowing Hollywood, they'll cast The Rock.
  • edited October 2014
    He's a good actor and he fits the build so I wouldn't have a problem with it. For the Major, though, couldn't they get a japanese actress? Everyone in the industry is all "Yeah! Let's promote diversity in our casting!" but they keep whitewashing. I mean, her name is Motoko Kusanagi for fuck's sake. Why not cast Rinko Kikuchi, or Ko Shibasaki, or Tao Okamoto? I mean, Okamoto was in Wolverine and is going to be in the new Batman/Superman movie. This would be a great part to move her from a secondary position to lead and stem the cries of fanboys.
    Post edited by Victor Frost on
  • edited October 2014
    I understand where you coming from but other than Scarlet being a white woman do you not feel she could do a good job playing the roll?
    Post edited by Josh Bytes on
  • Yeah, sure I do. She's proven time and time again to be a good actress. I just think there is going to be a massive jarring effect when people go to the cinema to watch this, see her face and hear someone addressing her with a name that evokes a MUCH different ethnicity. It's going to immediately pull the audience out of the story with a massive "wait, huh?". And I'm just talking about audience members not familiar with the source material. For fans, it'll probably be more "Ooh! Scarlett Johansson doing cool hacking. Scarlett Johansson backwards swan diving off of a building. 'Prime Minister, I'd like to introduce you to the head of my team, Major Motoko Kusanagi.' *criiiiinge...* Oh.... right...".
  • Yeah that make sense. Not to get to nerdy on this but I've always seen that character as just the "Major" myself. Gender and ethnic origins from what I've assessed from the Major were just hats she wears. Bearing little significance on what she identify as because her body was a structure and not who she was. Just my interpretation on her character of course.
  • I just think there is going to be a massive jarring effect when people go to the cinema to watch this, see her face and hear someone addressing her with a name that evokes a MUCH different ethnicity. It's going to immediately pull the audience out of the story with a massive "wait, huh?". And I'm just talking about audience members not familiar with the source material.

    I suspect you're wrong about that. I bet the average comic/superhero moviegoer couldn't give a shit about that sort of thing. Sure, you know it's a Japanese name, but even the fact that you know what GitS is right now, as opposed to 2 weeks before release means you're in the 99th percentile of Major awareness.

    I'm not saying it is good. Just that it is.
  • edited October 2014

    Yeah that make sense. Not to get to nerdy on this but I've always seen that character as just the "Major" myself. Gender and ethnic origins from what I've assessed from the Major were just hats she wears. Bearing little significance on what she identify as because her body was a structure and not who she was. Just my interpretation on her character of course.

    Yeah, that is absolutely true of her character. However, and I hate to say this of my adopted home, this is Hollywood. They're making a movie for a mass audience. It won't be a psychological thriller, or a sci-fi drama, or a futurist anthropological exploration; it'll be an action movie. And they will market it like an action movie. If this song (or similar) isn't playing in the trailer, I'd be surprised:


    General audiences won't know that her identity, in practically every sense, is fluid. They'll see a white actress playing a character with a japanese name.
    Starfox said:

    I suspect you're wrong about that. I bet the average comic/superhero moviegoer couldn't give a shit about that sort of thing.

    *shrug* Maybe, maybe not. It could be that all anyone will think is "cyborg hacker Black Widow" and that'll be that. As they say in Hollywood, until cameras start rolling, nothing is certain.

    However, and I think we can all agree on this, I hope that Yoko Kanno is involved in the soundtrack.
    Post edited by Victor Frost on
  • edited October 2014
    After hearing nothing else about this, since it was bothering me, I went digging for the original source - And, ah, turns out that it's a random hollywood hack just repeating a rumor. In fact, the exact quote: "I’ve heard DreamWorks has instead made a $10M offer to Scarlett Johansson"

    So, let's put down the torches and pitchforks until we have something a little more solid than a rumor that some hollywood gossip hack heard, yeah?
    Post edited by Churba on
  • Apreche said:

    I think Scarlett can pull off a passable Major. Who do you think could play a decent Batou?

    Knowing Hollywood, they'll cast The Rock.
    Tom Hardy?

    The Rock could actually work really well if they were trying to Starship Troopers it.
  • Yeah, sure I do. She's proven time and time again to be a good actress. I just think there is going to be a massive jarring effect when people go to the cinema to watch this, see her face and hear someone addressing her with a name that evokes a MUCH different ethnicity. It's going to immediately pull the audience out of the story with a massive "wait, huh?". And I'm just talking about audience members not familiar with the source material. For fans, it'll probably be more "Ooh! Scarlett Johansson doing cool hacking. Scarlett Johansson backwards swan diving off of a building. 'Prime Minister, I'd like to introduce you to the head of my team, Major Motoko Kusanagi.' *criiiiinge...* Oh.... right...".

    If they do cast Scarlet Johansson as the Major, what makes you think that they'll keep her name the same? What makes you think that the movie will even be set in Japan? This is Hollywood we're talking about here.

  • This is GitS. They can very easily begin with her robotic body being built and using dialog to explain that she used to look different but the body is being built as a Caucasian female for whatever purpose the plot requires.

    As for Bauto he always struck me as a musclebound white guy. I think Dwayne Johnson and Dave Bautista have the body for the part but not the face. Is there anyone who looks like a younger Dolph Lundgren that can act?
  • I look forward to this movie being set in Future Los Angeles and the main character being renamed Major Melissa Cousins or something like that.
  • Im going to call that it will look amazing but otherwise be absolute dross.
  • Or, she doesn't have a japanese name in the Hollywood version... just The Major
  • It's not fucking confirmed at all, they're calling it confirmed, and linking back to the same rumor published in variety. Shit, they don't even say who she's been cast as in the rumor, we're just making the assumption.

    Of course, they might have already cast the Major, but nobody knows who it is because it's not Rinko Kekuchi, and Americans can only remember one Japanese person in Hollywood at a time.

    Don't forget - or it appears, don't forget again - that we don't fucking know anything right now. If I wanted to listen to whining, baseless speculation based on circlejerk-y opinions about how everything and in this case Hollywood works, I'd not bother leaving Reddit.
  • Original soundtrack by Machinae Supremacy.

    Shirow pls.
  • In the near future, everyone will internet with wires again.
  • In the near future, everyone will internet with wires again.

    Even if one day our technology advances so much that wireless is faster than wired, physical connections between things in close proximity will always be useful due to the security it provides. If you connect two computers with a cable, you know with absolutely certainty that you do not have to worry about a MitM attack on that connection.
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