GHOST IN THE SHELL
How anime classic Ghost In The Shell got an A-list reboot
Scar Jo’s anime update. Not to be confused with ’80s Scouse horror ‘Ghost In The Shell Suit’.
NO STRANGER TO post-human concepts, Scarlett Johansson has previously played a superevolved consciousness (Lucy) and an ultraadvanced AI (Her). In director Rupert Sanders’
Ghost In The Shell — a live-action take on the seminal cyberpunk anime — she’s tethered to physical form, but her body and brain are 100 per cent cyborg; only her soul (or “ghost”) remains human. “I’ve been a person without a body, now I’m a mind in a synthetic body. Eventually I’ll go back to playing a body and brain together,” she laughs.
Johansson’s attributes in this case belong to The Major: head of Hong Kong’s multi-ethnic cyber-terrorism countermeasures unit Section 9, which also employs Pilou Asbaek, Juliette Binoche and Takeshi Kitano. The plot remains largely under wraps, but draws on material from across the franchise (Masamune Shirow’s original manga; Mamoru Oshii’s classic film and its follow-ups). Sanders is remixing as well as remaking, but promises “this isn’t the shit Hollywood version”.
“This is a ride that’s not just explosive and exciting, but also curious and reflective,” Johansson believes. Top of the agenda for the remake? Preserving the franchise USP of sci-fi musings on humanity’s relationship with technology — only now with Johansson kicking serious ass.