It’s cited as being one of the major influences behind the MATRIX (plus a barrel full of other contemporary sci-fi) but there’s one thing GHOST IN THE SHELL most certainly is: a ball-ache to turn into live-action. 

The seminal manga series (and film, television and video game series) has been milling around the studio lots of Hollywood for a fair while now. It was first acquired by DreamWorks, who planned to shoot it in 3D, and in 2009 AVATAR writer Laeta Kalogridis was sworn in to whisk up a new draft of the script.

Now reports have emerged that the remake has finally got itself a director in Rupert Sanders, last seen making Kristen Stewart look all broody (for a change) in SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN. Though he may be working off a script from HOAX writer William Wheeler.

GHOST IN THE SHELL is like anime scripture and it’ll take a very brave filmmaker to stamp his/her mark on it, not to mention make the enormously difficult transition to live-action. For a quick catch up: the story follows cyborg law enforcer Motoko Kusanagi, a member of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission, who specialises in fighting technology-based crime. There’s a whole lot of trippy imagery (including a lot of time spent inside machines and brains and whatnot) and some seriously high-concept production design that will only be sated by a few truck-fulls of dollars.

So what do you think: excited, or nervous at the impending destruction of a beloved series? There are some serious chops for a quality GHOST IN THE SHELL adaptation, but there’s a labyrinthine challenge ahead of it.

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