Some interesting news coming in from Variety. When you think of Steven Spielberg, Japanese manga doesn’t really come to mind, but alas, he was a major part of DreamWorks scoring the rights to the Japanese manga GHOST IN THE SHELL. He had the following to say:
” ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is one of my favorite stories. It’s a genre that has arrived, and we enthusiastically welcome it to DreamWorks.”
Before even getting to the premise, scope out some shots from the manga above and below… can you blame him for being interested? I sure can’t. Now according to Variety, GHOST IN THE SHELL is about the exploits of a member of a covert ops unit of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission that specializes in fighting technology-related crime.
When that member of the covert ops unit looks like the female above and below, I’m down! DreamWorks plans to adapt it into a 3-D live action film.
The original GHOST IN THE SHELL was created in 1989 by Masamune Shirow. It’s spawned 2 other mangas, 3 anime films, an anime TV series, and 3 video games… so needless to say it’s a hot property. Interesting to note is that DreamWorks actually released the second of those anime films in 2004, called GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE.
Comic-to-movie kingpin Avi Arad will be producing along with Steven Paul of Seaside Entertainement. DreamWorks beat out both Universal and Sony for the rights, with Spielberg’s interest being the knockout blow. DreamWorks’ prexy of production Adam Goodman had the following to say regarding the 3-D element:
[“Ghost in the Shell” is a property] that epitomizes 3-D live-action motion picture possibilities.”
Jamie Moss will be adapting the manga into a script. We’ll keep you updated on any other GHOST IN THE SHELL news.