Based
on the internationally-acclaimed sci-fi property by Masamune Shirow, Ghost In
The Shell follows the Major (Scarlett Johansson), 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 extremist, Section 9 is faced with an
enemy whose singular goal is to wipe out Hanka Robotics' advancements in cyber
technology.
Speaking to Collider, producer Avi Arad ("Spider-Man"),
offered his insight on the project to clarify on what storyline(s) inspired the
film.
"We’re not doing Puppetmaster. It’s not Laughing
Man. It involves Kuze. The Kuze story. The big thing we are doing here is that
we’re not necessarily doing an origins backstory, but we are addressing her
sense of self and resolving how she defines herself in terms of memories.
That’s one of the main thrusts in the story. Inspired by that episode of
Affection in Second Gig. It’s bits and pieces of those mixed together."
The Puppetmaster and to a certain extent the Laughing
Man, are two of the franchise's most iconic villains, however, Arad says…
"There are outside
villains but they are never the most interesting parts of a movie, especially
your first movie. I find that part of the reason we didn’t do Puppetmaster in
this movie was we didn’t really feel like we had time to tell that story, and
in your first movie the way the characters feel about themselves and the
relationship with those people that they care about is usually more than enough
story for a movie to handle. So there are villains and they do drive a lot of
the story, but they are really there to antagonize her spiritually.
The villains in the story
are people that are abusing this brave new world. The movie certainly addresses
this whole idea of in the future, if you think about everybody’s biggest fear
around technology is about getting your identity stolen (which is really just
your credit record) as apposed someone hacking your brain could happen here.
The more technology gets inside of you and the more it’s woven into your life
the more that people can abuse it. So there are characters, both at a criminal
level and a governmental level, who are abusing technology and doing scary
things.
Ghost hacking is a big
storyline in the movie and in some ways we take it even further. This idea of
if someone could change your memories, what would that do to your sense of
self? After you meet that garbageman and you see him in the interrogation room.
You’re like ‘that guy’s gone’. You could have a really interesting movie about
that guy trying to put his life back together. Being told you don’t have a wife
and kids that you thought you did is a big hole."
On what you may recognize, Arad hints that we could
end up seeing a couple of truly iconic moments from the manga and original 1995
animated classic.
"You’ll recognize some things from Ghost in the Shell: Innocence like the geisha bot. A lot of
the time when you see futurist movies either it feels very beautiful and
removed and clean or you have to go down a grimy, dystopic world. Rupert (Sanders, the director) was
chasing something else that was more similar to the source where it felt really
tactile and tangible and you had things like cables even though wireless makes
more sense. If you look at the original, the guys’ hands break off and type.
Even in 1995 the idea that if you talked to a computer you’d type really,
really fast didn’t make sense. That’s where we are coming from a lot of the
time."
And speaking of the original Ghost in the Shell anime,
Arad says…
"Everything we pulled from the movie is because
we thought it was cool. There’s a whole thermoptic sequence with the
garbageman. We did that because we thought it was really cool. What was
interesting about Ghost in the Shell is that it was never really a
predictive future. It was more about a future that was meant to provoke a
feeling in the audience and that’s guided design as much as if we were to hire
a bunch of engineers and physicists and futurists to predict things. That’s the
same kind of philosophy in this movie. There are things here that are more
tangible like the cables or the (lack of finger-splitting) hands. Even the
cars. In every version of Ghost in the Shell you’d never see a flying car.
Everything felt like it had a combustion engine. It was all about making it
feel chunkier and more tangible aesthetic and a mix of an overly dense urban
area."
Opening in theaters on March 31, 2017, Ghost in the
Shell also stars Takeshi Kitano, Michael
Pitt, Juliette Binoche, Pilou Asbæk, Kaori Momoi, Rila Fukushima, Danusia Samal, Yutaka Izumihara, Chin Han, Lasarus Ratuere, and Tuwanda Manyimo.
Source - Collider
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