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Live-Action Ghost in the Shell Writer Discusses Film
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The websites MoviesOnline.ca and ScreenRant.com have both posted interviews with Laeta Kalogridis, the current screenwriter for DreamWorks and Steven Spielberg's planned live-action adaptation of Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell cyber-police manga. Kalogridis was once also hired by James Cameron to script his planned adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita (GUNNM) manga. She is also an executive producer and screenwriter on Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island and an executive producer on Cameron's Avatar.
In the interviews, Kalogridis reiterated that the script for the live-action Ghost in the Shell will be based on Shirow's original manga and not Production I.G and Mamoru Oshii's animated movie adaptation. Like the manga, Kalogridis said the upcoming movie will have "a lot of action … lots of action."
However, as a nod to Oshii's anime film adaptations, Kalogridis also added, "there's still going to be a lot of atmosphere – [The movie] is about vast possibilities – all of this technology, the Internet – it's about the limitless possibilities of this technology."
Kalogridis also commented on a possible trend of more live-action adaptations of anime and manga in Hollywood, saying "I think anime and manga are slowly becoming a big part of our mythos, I think yes, they're sort of a natural fit for films."
The American arm of the manga's original Japanese publisher Kodansha is reprinting the manga after Dark Horse Comics had the license. Kodansha also launched two new manga series based on the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex television anime series in December .
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history