Bar is set pretty high for Ghost remake
The opening moments of the new Ghost in the Shell — a minute- and- a- half establishing shot of its futuristic city and its hero, The Major ( Scarlett Johansson) — could have taken quite a bit of time if it had been done on only one computer, said the film’s visualeffects supervisor, Guillaume Rocheron. “About 33 years,” he guessed.
Luckily, they had more than one computer.
Ghost in the Shell involves crime, intrigue and Major’s realization that her life was stolen when she was made into a cyber- enhanced crime- fighting machine. It is intended to amaze with its transformation of the beloved 1995 anime into a live- action Hollywood spectacle. But Rocheron said the intention was also to do as much “practically” as they could.
“We tried to be as tactile as possible,” he said, “which was always Rupert’s mission.”
Director Rupert Sanders ( Snow White and the Huntsman), along with Rocheron and the rest of their filmmaking team, were under quite a bit of pressure. The animated Japanese version, directed by Mamoru Oshii ( and adapted from the popular manga, or comic book), has an enormous cult following. It was just released on BluRay/ HD digital by Anchor Bay Entertainment with a limited edition steelbook and exclusive Mondo artwork ( there have been numerous other films and TV series, as well). To say it has a fan base is to do it an injustice. Ghost in the Shell broke new ground — for fans, and for the Japanese animation industry — when it hit U. S. shores March 29, 1996. A generation of anime lovers were exposed to it at an impressionable time in their movie- consuming careers.
“Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell arrived on the Western radar at a perfect moment — and not just by capturing so many of the tropes and concerns of the cyberpunk movement,” said Rupert Bottenberg, programmer of the Axis animation section at Montreal’s Fantasia film festival, and who presented and interviewed director Oshii there two years ago. (“I was reading Masamune Shirow’s mangas in the late ’ 80s, well before the anime.”)
Bottenberg said that Saturdaymorning and after- school cartoons had familiarized kids with the anime style and sensibility, but the quality of Japanese animation, since the ’ 60s, had been all about “cutting corners.” When the sophisticated Akira hit screens in 1988, it was a revelation. But it took GITS in 1995 to show that Akira wasn’t a fluke, that the Japanese animation industry had metamorphosed into something far more technically advanced.
“The streak of sexiness and the du jour cyberpunk themes were important, of course,” Bottenberg said. “But Oshii’s removed, abstracted, philosophizing tone confirmed what Akira had suggested — that cartoons no longer needed to be synonymous with kooky and cuddly.”
Given the impact of Ghost in the Shell, a live- action remake assumed immediate baggage.
“I knew it would be impossible to simply remake the original,” Sanders said. “We had to find a story that felt part of the world, part of the legacy, and not just a re- creation. My approach was to adapt and yet honor the original material.”
Sanders’ Ghost in the Shell, which co- stars Juliette Binoche and Michael Pitt and was written by Jamie Moss, became controversial as soon as Johansson was cast as the lead. That a non- Asian would be playing the principal character in the remake of such an iconic Japanese story struck many as just another case of Hollywood “whitewashing.” However, Oshii has apparently given his blessing to Johansson, and the cast does include several Asian stars, including one of the biggest, the actor and director Takeshi Kitano.
“I grew up watching the films of Takeshi- san, from Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, to Sonatine to Hana- bi, ” said Sanders, “and when first casting for the role of Aramaki there was no one else in my mind. It was a challenge to schedule, he is always busy, but I was incredibly persistent and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Even when I had to tell the studio that he would only speak in Japanese,
I wouldn’t back down.”
At the world premiere of Ghost in the Shell in Tokyo, a news conference brought together members of the international cast, including Kitano and Johansson.
“Appearing in a real Hollywood film with a big budget was a very good experience for me. Scarlett taught me how to behave when working as an actor,” said Kitano, who
has 64 acting credits and is something of a one- man entertainment empire in Japan.
For her part, Johansson left any controversies to others. “This film was a labor of love for all of us, and it’s a property that’s beloved by all of you,” she told the Japanese media. “And it feels very fitting and deeply touching to bring this film here for the world premiere.”