DreamWorks announced early last year that it had acquired the rights to Masamune Shirow’s manga Ghost in the Shell with plans to turn it into a 3D (stereoscopic) live-action film. Now Laeta Kalogridis has come on board to write a new script. Kalogridis has writing credits on Night Watch, Alexander and the upcoming Shutter Island. Jamie Moss previously worked on the script. There is no director attached but Avi Arid, Ari Arad and Steven Paul are producing.
Of course, Ghost in the Shell already has a rich animated life in Japan, with Mamoru Oshii’s two feature films, the pair of 26-episode television series and a third film based on the TV version. I happen to love pretty much everything about this property, from the manga itself to the films and TV show, so I’m a bit wary of it getting the Hollywood treatment. On the other hand, I think it’ll transfer over much easier than, say, Akira, which is hard to imagine taking place anywhere but Neo-Tokyo and some geopolitical themes that more unique to Japan. You certainly won’t catch me complaining too much about Hollywood tackling a big cyberpunk story. There’s never enough of that.
