Discuss: Who Should Direct the Live Action GHOST IN THE SHELL?

Recently Variety reported that Laeta Kalogridis was hired to adapt the famous manga/anime GHOST IN THE SHELL (GITS) for DreamWorks Pictures. Kalogridis certainly understands the idea of a mechanically altered agent, since she was one of the producers and writers on the short lived remake of THE BIONIC WOMAN for Universal/NBC. Her grasp of female heroines is strong as seen with her writing for The WB’s BIRDS OF PREY. Her biggest job to date was the upcoming SHUTTER ISLAND. She’s taking over the job of writer on this project from Jamie Moss, who originally was pulled on to write.

The live action feature is going to be produced by Avi Arad and shot in 3D. No director has been hired yet, but in a back and forth twitter conversation with Duncan Jones, I discovered he has a love for the characters and material. Jones stated “If I was ever going to act, I would want to play Batou (One of the characters from the series)… lol,” He continued with “(GHOST IN THE SHELL) is one of the few sci-fi things I haven’t written myself that I would love to do.” Personally after seeing MOON I think he’s the right man for the job.

GHOST IN THE SHELL is the extremely popular series from Japan which tells the story of special police agent Motoko Kusanagi. Kusanagi was hurt very badly as a little girl and had to have her body replaced with a completely synthetic one. She later became a member of an elite squad of special agents called Section 9. By her side at all times is Batou, another synthetic cop who got his own film in GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE.

GHOST IN THE SHELL’ was created by Masamune Shirow, in 1989 and still holds up today. It’s first anime film hit theaters in 1995 in Japan and later that year in America. It’s spawned multiple games and another anime TV series that broke away from the regular story line to tell a new one about cyber terrorism. GITS is almost directly responsible for influencing a lot of cyber-punk media including THE MATRIX.

I personally can’t wait for this film to hit, but some of Kalogridis’ work is a little shaky and corny. I’d like a more established set of hands on the project, otherwise we may end up with another DRAGON BALL: EVOLUTION.