News about the controversial plans for a live-action remake of anime classic Ghost In The Shell has been thin on the ground of late. But with Scarlett Johansson does the press rounds for a little movie called Avengers: Age Of Ultron, the star of the planned project told Collider when the film will start shooting.
“It’s happening. It will be shooting the beginning of next year, so I think we start production January or February and it’s me and Rupert [Sanders]; and that’s all I know.”
Rupert Sanders is the director of Snow White And The Huntsman, and he's working with producers Avi Arad and Steven Paul on the film which no doubt hopes to match the financial success of 2014's Scarlett Johannsson action movie **Lucy **($458 million worldwide).
The production rumbles on despite the understandable concerns of those who love Masamune Shirow’s original 1989 work, which spawned three manga editions, three films a TV series and several video games. Still, Ghost boasts a compelling story angle for the big screen: the focus is on Motoko Kusanagi (Johansson), a cyborg law enforcer and part of the member of a covert ops unit of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission, which specialises in tackling technology-related crimes.
Live-action will be a tougher medium to work in than either the printed page or animation, but if James Cameron can find a way to shoot Avatar, it should be possible to make a good Ghost film. Assuming you can crack the story properly... And for more on that, and more on the original generally, be sure to read through our Ghost In The Shell** crash course guide.