Even if you put aside the whole white-washing issue, Paramount's upcoming GHOST IN THE SHELL has another possible strike against it as Hollywood is rarely successful when it comes to adapting stories and films from foreign countries. I'm not saying that it's impossible, there are certainly exceptions, but those stories tend to either get sanitized or changed to the point of bearing little resemblance to what came before. However, based on what little we've seen from Rupert Sanders' GHOST IN THE SHELL, I'm actually feeling cautiously optimistic about the Hollywood adaptation of Masamune Shirow's story.
While speaking with Empire, Sanders says that the film will be "a ride that's not just explosive and exciting, but also curious and reflective." The director also reassured fans that GHOST IN THE SHELL won't be the "shit Hollywood version." That's certainly nice to hear, but it remains to be seen whether the film will actually live up to those sentiments. Empire also debuted a brand-new picture of Scarlett Johansson as The Major.
Here's the synopsis for GHOST IN THE SHELL:
Based on the internationally-acclaimed sci-fi property, GHOST IN THE SHELL follows Major, a special ops, one-of-a-kind human-cyborg hybrid, who leads the elite task force Section 9. Devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists, Section 9 is faced with an enemy whose singular goal is to wipe out Hanka Robotic’s advancements in cyber technology.
GHOST IN THE SHELL is set for a March 31, 2017 release.