Shutter Island Writer Adapting Ghost In The Shell For Live-Action 3D At Dreamworks
Last year, Dreamworks bought the rights toMasamune Shirow’s original mangaGhost in the Shelland tappedJamie Mossto write a new feature film based on the story. Now a new writer has been assigned:Laeta Kalogridis, the scribe and executive producer of Martin Scorsese’sShutter Island.
Varietysays the new version will be 3D, which doesn’t come as any great surprise, given the way 3D is now liberally being applied to genre and sci-fi properties. Too badShutter Islandwas pushed to next year or we might have a better idea what this assignment means for the Americanized live-action version ofGhost in the Shell. But Kalogridis isn’t a neophyte; she’s also credited with screenplay work forBattle Angel, James Cameron’s long-simmering adaptation of the mangaBattle Angel: Alita, as well as Cameron’s planned filmThe Dive. (She alsoreportedlydid some work on theAvatarscript.) The produced films written by Kalogridis that you might have seen includePathfinder(I really hope you didn’t see, or suffer that movie) andAlexander.
For the uninitiated,Ghost in the Shellfollows Major Motoko Kusanagi’s pursuit of the cyber-criminal The Puppeteer, who commits crimes by “ghost hacking”, or taking control of human minds. We learn that the Puppeteer is actually an autonomous artificial intelligence created by a government foreign affairs and counter-terrorism agency called Section 6. Kusangi’s body is largely bionic, and when she and the Puppeteer come together a unique synthesis takes place.
Ghost in the Shellhas already been the basis for two feature anime films by Mamoru Oshii, two anime series, a film sequel to the anime, a couple of novels and several video games. In other words, there’s plenty of existing material already, so cries about how Hollywood is going to ‘ruin’ the story will sound pretty hollow.
