Ghost in the Shell

[GeneChing]

I'm surprised there isn't a thread on this already. The original was groundbreaking anime.


Scarlett Johansson Signs On to Star in DreamWorks’ ‘Ghost in the Shell’ (EXCLUSIVE) (http://variety.com/2015/film/news/scarlett-johansson-signs-on-to-star-in-dreamworks-ghost-in-the-shell-exclusive-1201320788/)

http://i1.wp.com/pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/scarlett-johansson1.jpg?crop=0px%2C15px%2C1920px%2C1069px&resize=670%2C377
January 5, 2015 | 08:30AM PT
Justin Kroll
Film Reporter @krolljvar

Following the success of “Lucy,” Scarlett Johansson looks ready to take on another action pic, this one coming from the world of Japanese anime.

Johansson is set to star in DreamWorks’ adaptation of the popular anime pic “Ghost in the Shell.” Deadline Hollywood had reported that the actress had the offer to star but at the time she was still undecided about taking the role. Sources now say she has agreed to star in the pic.

The story follows the exploits of a member of a covert ops unit of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission that specializes in fighting technology-related crime.

Rupert Sanders is on board to direct. Avi Arad and Steven Paul are producing the film from a script by Bill Wheeler. Mark Sourian is exec producing.

Insiders also tell Variety that Paramount has the option to come on as co-producer and financier and that decision is expected in the coming weeks.

DreamWorks principal Steven Spielberg is a huge fan of the original and has long wanted to get this film off the ground. A commitment from a star like Johansson should help in getting the pic greenlit for production.

Besides Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lawrence, Johansson is becoming one of the few actresses in town with the clout to get a project greenlit on her name alone.

“Lucy” made $394 million worldwide and Johansson can be seen next in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” bowing in May. Johansson has also done a nice job of balancing action-heavy tentpoles with serious dramas and comedies.

She received rave reviews for Spike Jonze’s “Her” and is a part of the ensemble of the Coen brothers’ next pic “Hail, Caesar!” She is repped by CAA and LBI Entertainment.

[GeneChing]

Promo for the New Animated Ghost in the Shell Debuts (http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/trailers/397413-promo-for-the-new-animated-ghost-in-the-shell-debuts)
By Spencer Perry ON January 8, 2015

On the heels of the announcement that Scarlett Johansson will lead a live-action version of Ghost in the Shell, Moca News (Via ANN) has uncovered a promo for an upcoming animated film based on the Japanese series acting as an “evolution” of the story. Check it out below.

Much of the crew for the previously-released Ghost in the Shell: Arise have transitioned into working on this latest film, including director Kazuchika Kise who will also design the characters. “Arise” screenwriter Tow Ubukata will pen the script with music by Corneliu. The cast from Ghost in the Shell: Arise will also take part in the latest film, including Maaya Sakamoto, Ikkyuu Juku, Kenichirou Matsuda, Tarusuke Shingaki, Shunsuke Sakuya, Takurou Nakakuni, Youji Ueda, Kazuya Nakai, and Miyuki Sawashiro.

The film is expected to debut in Japan in early summer with no set American release, but check back here for further details.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUEktyhOSxg

http://www.superherohype.com/assets/uploads/2015/01/ghost-640.jpg

If you've never seen the original GitS, it is one of the most visionary animes of its time and spawned several more installments in the franchise. I'm a little torn about ScarJo playing Major Motoko Kusanagi as it's another case of caucasianofying an Asian role. But then again, I'd watch ScarJo floss her teeth. The photo above just doesn't do her justice.

[PalmStriker]

:D Scar would look good as an Asian brunette.

[@PLUGO]

She did ok as a Scottish Extraterrestrial in UNDER THE SKIN.

[GeneChing]

And it's not as big a jump as Motoko.

It's like if ScarJo was to play Valerie from Josie and the *****cats. Better than Rosario?

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTMxNzYxNjk2Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwOTQ5MTM3._V1_S X640_SY720_.jpg

[GeneChing]

DreamWorks: Stop Whitewashing Asian Characters! (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/683/366/733/dreamworks-dont-whitewash-japanese-films/?z00m=22503826)

http://dingo.care2.com/pictures/petition_images/petition/733/683366-1421126884-wide.jpg

author: Julie Rodriguez
target: DreamWorks Studios
signatures: 28,629

28,629
29,000

we've got 28,629 signatures, help us get to 29,000

overview | petition

Fans of the iconic 1995 animated Japanese sci-fi film Ghost in the Shell have been anticipating a live-action remake for years -- but now, instead of casting an Asian actress, Dreamworks has selected Scarlett Johansson for the lead role! The film revolves around Major Motoko Kusanagi, a member of a futuristic security force tasked with tracking a mysterious hacker.

The original film is set in Japan, and the major cast members are Japanese. So why would the American remake star a white actress? The industry is already unfriendly to Asian actors without roles in major films being changed to exclude them. One recent survey found that in 2013, Asian characters made up only 4.4% of speaking roles in top-grossing Hollywood films.

Dreamworks could be using this film to help provide opportunities for Asian-American actors in a market with few opportunities for them to shine -- please sign the petition asking them to reconsider casting Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell and select actors who are truer to the cast of the original film!
you have the power to create change.

Start sharing and watch your impact grow



I'm now really curious if the opposite has ever happened - like is there an Asian-washing where Chinese actors were cast to play Charlie Brown or something? That must exist, right?

[GeneChing]

Apr 23, 2015 @ 6:24 AM 253 views
'Ghost In The Shell' Movie To Start Filming In 2016 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2015/04/23/ghost-in-the-shell-movie-to-start-filming-in-2016/)

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/olliebarder/files/2015/04/new_gits_cover.jpg
JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images

Ollie Barder
Contributor
I write about video games and pop-culture from Japan.

It seems despite the petitions and general fan based disapproval, Dreamworks are going ahead with the live action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. According to the movie’s lead actress, Scarlett Johansson, filming will start at the beginning of 2016.

Thus far we know that Rupert Sanders is set to direct the film, based off a script by William Wheeler. The production side of things is also being handled by Avi Arad.

While the creative team behind this doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence, the real clincher is that Hollywood in general still has a poor grasp on dealing with anime and manga related properties.

This is very much evident in the casting of Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi, which is a truly bizarre choice.

Some fans have even gone so far to claim “white washing“, as the character’s origins are Asian. While I can understand that reasoning, my issue is that I don’t think she is a good fit for the role.

Not because she is a bad actress, far from it. Just that there are better suited actresses for a part such as this.

On account of all this fans have ended up petitioning Dreamworks to reconsider this crucial casting choice.

It’s clear that, for now at least, the film is going ahead as intended. So it will be very much up Dreamworks to deliver a movie that accurately represents the host property.

While I hope that they can do a good job with this new Ghost in the Shell movie, Hollywood’s prior track record doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

It's total white-washing, but I watched ScarJo in Lucy (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?67473-Lucy), so I'll sit through almost anything for her. Dang, I should review Lucy. It was bad.

[GeneChing]

Only for you kiwis however...wait...is it cool for a yank to say 'kiwi' or is it like the n-word here? I don't mean to offend. :o


‘Ghost in the Shell’ Starring Scarlett Johansson Open Casting Call (http://www.projectcasting.com/casting-calls-acting-auditions/ghost-in-the-shell-starring-scarlett-johansson-open-casting-call/)
October 1, 2015, Casting Calls & Auditions, featured, Ghost in the Shell, New Zealand, Rachel Bullock Casting, Scarlett Johansson

http://www.projectcasting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Ghost-in-the-Shell.jpg

Ghost in the Shell starring Scarlett Johansson is now holding an open casting call in Wellington, New Zealand.

Rachel Bullock Casting posted a casting call for extras to appear in the Dreamworks and Paramount Pictures’ upcoming live-action thriller, Ghost in the Shell. The casting call is for people of all ethnicities, age 18 and over, and able to work.

Filming is started to begin from Wellington’s Stone Street Studios in January 2016.

Dreamworks and Paramount are con-financing and co-producing the film. Paramount will handle the international release of the upcomign feature film and Dreamworks will handle the release according to their original deal with Disney. The movie is set to open on March 31, 2017.

Disney initially scheduled the release of the live-action film for April 14, 2017, but announced its plans to push forward the release of the movie into April.

Scarlett Johansson, the actress most known for Lucy, Lost in Translation, and The Avengers signed on to star in this adaptation of Masamune Shirow‘s manga, and Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) will direct off a script by William Wheeler (Hoax, The Reluctant Fundamentalist).

Johannson revealed earlier in April that the film “will be shooting the beginning of next year, so I think we start production January or February.” Deadline reported earlier this year that she was offered $10 million for the role.

To apply for a background acting role on the upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie, check out the casting call breakdown below:
Ghost in the Shell Open Casting Call

I am casting extras for the following film and we are looking for a wide variety of people. We want to have all ethnicities covered in this film. At this stage we would need people to fill out a form and have a couple of photos taken of them. Please note this is a paid job. If anyone would like to get in touch with me please e mail

extras.lbo@gmail.com

FEATURE FILM LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO BE EXTRAS

“Ghost in the Shell,” a DreamWorks Studios film shooting in NZ (out of Stone St studios in Wellington) in January 2016. This film is based on the internationally-acclaimed manga and anime series of the same name.

If you or anyone you know are interested in being an extra, are available to work in Wellington, and are aged 18+ please let me know.

Please do not apply, if you are not local or if you do not fit the description.

[GeneChing]

Live-action Ghost in the Shell movie casts its first Japanese actor: Beat Takeshi (http://en.rocketnews24.com/2016/03/04/live-action-ghost-in-the-shell-movie-casts-its-first-japanese-actor-beat-takeshi/)
Casey Baseel about an hour ago

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/gs-31.png?w=580&h=352

69-year-old set to play key role in Hollywood anime adaptation.

DreamWorks Pictures’ upcoming live-action version of hit manga and anime Ghost in the Shell has ruffled the feathers of a few fans, and not just because of the many, many years that have passed since the still-unfinished picture was first announced. The choice of actress Scarlett Johansson to play the lead role of Motoko Kusanagi has been a divisive decision, with one side of the debate saying the star power she brings gives the project the sort of legitimacy it needs to procure the production and marketing funds necessary to do its exalted source material justice.

On the other hand, others are upset that the Japanese Kusanagi will be being portrayed by the Caucasian Johansson. A common rebuttal to that complaint has been that in the cybernetics-steeped world of Ghost in the Shell, most characters’ bodies are largely artificial, so it’s feasible that Kusanagi could simply opt to put her ghost in a non-Japanese-looking shell with no greater significance attached to the action than wearing a foreign-made piece of clothing.

Still, those hoping for some sort of Japanese presence on-screen were no doubt disappointed when Danish actor Pilou Asbaek was tapped as the ethnically ambiguous Batou, followed by Caucasian American Michael Pitt as the terrorist antagonist Laughing Man. Now, though, the live-action Ghost in the Shell has its first Japanese cast member, and it’s none other than the internationally acclaimed Beat Takeshi.

It’s not like the 69-year-old Takeshi will be making a cameo as a street food vendor or some other such minor background character. He’ll be playing Daisuke Aramaki, the head of Public Security Section 9 and the highest-ranking member of Ghost in the Shell’s team of heroes.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/gs-21.png?w=580

The role marks Takeshi’s first role in a Hollywood movie since another cyberpunk film, Johnny Mnemonic. Given how much more well-known he’s become overseas in the last two decades, it’s likely Takeshi will receive much more screen time than he did in the 1995 Keanu Reeves film.

In regards to Ghost in the Shell, Kitano commented “As it’s a work of stylish entertainment that’s completely different from my own directorial projects, I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.” And while Takeshi is both taller and stockier than the extremely diminutive Aramaki, the actor has already expressed a respectful fondness for Section 9’s director, describing him as “A compelling character who emits a unique presence.”

DreamWorks’ Ghost in the Shell is currently scheduled to open on March 31, 2017.

Source: Oricon Style via Hachima Kiko
Images: Ghost in the Shell official website

I come and go with Beat Takeshi. He was great in BR (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?53911-Batoru-Rowaiaru-AKA-Battle-Royale) but I hated his spin on Zatoichi (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?13431-Zatoichi).

[GeneChing]

If memory serves, isn't Kusanagi nekkid in a few scenes in the original anime? Does that mean we'll get to see Scar-Jo nekkid?


First Look: Scarlett Johansson In Anime Adaptation ‘Ghost In The Shell’ (http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/first-look-scarlett-johansson-in-anime-adaptation-ghost-in-the-shell-20160414)
By Rodrigo Perez | The Playlist
April 14, 2016 at 8:17AM

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The #filmtwitter world is focused on France and the Cannes Film Festival announcement this morning, but there's much more going on beyond the Croisette. Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures have announced that production has started on “Ghost In The Shell” starring Scarlett Johansson, and they’ve released the inaugural first look image from the movie.

Rupert Sanders (“Snow White And the Huntsman”) is directing the anime adaption, with lensing taking place in Wellington, New Zealand. Paramount Pictures will release the film in the U.S. on March 31, 2017. Press release details below.

The film, which is based on the famous Kodansha Comics manga series of the same name, written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow, is produced by Avi Arad (“THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 1 & 2,” “IRON MAN”), Ari Arad (“GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE”), and Steven Paul (“GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE”). Michael Costigan (“PROMETHEUS”), Tetsu Fujimura (“TEKKEN”), Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, whose animation studio Production I.G produced the Japanese "GHOST IN THE SHELL” film and television series, and Jeffrey Silver (“EDGE OF TOMORROW,” “300”) will executive produce.

Based on the internationally-acclaimed sci-fi property, “GHOST IN THE SHELL” follows the Major, 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 extremists, Section 9 is faced with an enemy whose singular goal is to wipe out Hanka Robotic’s advancements in cyber technology.

“We are so pleased to be in Wellington to shoot ‘GHOST IN THE SHELL,’” said producers Avi Arad, Ari Arad, Michael Costigan and Jeffrey Silver. “The city boasts state-of-the-art production facilities and a rich urban landscape that make it an ideal setting for a sci-fi action film. The crew-base in New Zealand working on the film is first class, and working with Sir Richard Taylor and the team at Weta Workshop is inspirational on every level. The people of New Zealand have been terrific partners in helping us bring this story and its beloved characters to audiences around the world and we are thankful for their continued hospitality.”

[GeneChing]

APRIL 15, 2016 3:57pm PT by Rebecca Sun, Graeme McMillan
Why Did 'Doctor Strange' and 'Ghost in the Shell' Whitewash Their Asian Characters? (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/doc-strange-whitewashing-shell-884385)

http://cdn5.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale_crop_768_433/2016/04/doctor_strange_and_ghost_in_the_shell_split.jpg
Marvel's 'Doctor Strange'; Paramount and DreamWorks' 'Ghost in the Shell' Courtesy of Film Frame; Paramount Pictures

This week in cultural appropriation: Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton and a conversation between two THR writers.

This week, Marvel dropped the first teaser trailer for Doctor Strange, based on its comic series about a critically injured neurosurgeon who travels to the Himalayas to learn mystic arts from a powerful sorcerer known as the Ancient One. Two days later, Paramount and DreamWorks released the first image from Ghost in the Shell, their live-action adaptation of the Japanese manga about an anti-cyberterror task force set in mid-21st century Japan and led by cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi.

On paper, it reads like a great week for Asian representation in Hollywood — but the Ancient One and the Major are played, respectively, by Tilda Swinton and Scarlett Johansson. And so these two projects — long-awaited by many fans of their source material — instead join Gods of Egypt, Aloha and Pan as recent inductees to Hollywood's Whitewashing Hall of Shame.

Below, The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blogger Graeme McMillan and senior reporter Rebecca Sun discuss the similar circumstances greeting the films so far.

Rebecca Sun: We braced ourselves when the castings were announced, but (just like that Nina trailer) the visual evidence still stung.

In flipping both race and gender to cast Swinton as a character who in the original comics is a Tibetan-born man, Marvel admirably went out of the box to correct one aspect of underrepresentation in its cinematic universe, but did so at the expense of another. Like its fellow Marvel franchise Iron Fist, it is steeped in cultural appropriation and centers around what Graeme previously noted as the "white man finds enlightenment in Asia" trope.

Give Hollywood partial credit for continuously trying to cleverly sidestep the Fu Manchu stereotype of characters like DC's Ra's al Ghul and Marvel's The Mandarin — but why is the solution consistently to reimagine those characters with white actors (Liam Neeson in Christopher Nolan's Batman films and Guy Pearce in Iron Man 3, respectively)? The Doctor Strange movie doesn't need its Ancient One to look like Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China, but there are creative ways to interpret the character without yet again erasing an Asian person from an inherently Asian narrative.

Graeme McMillan: The casting of Strange is a very frustrating thing; it's not just the Ancient One that's racebent — Baron Mordo, a white man in the comics, is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor in the movie; you see him for an instant in the teaser — but it all seems to be done with little thought about the implications of the changes. While I'm happy to see a "white role" played by a black man in the movie, Ejiofor's casting reinforces the implications of Thor, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the Iron Man movies that every white hero gets a black sidekick in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (see also Zoe Saldana in Guardians of the Galaxy, but there, she's painted green, because space).

Switching the Ancient One to Tilda Swinton feels similarly well-intentioned, but thoughtless. On the one hand, yes, you're trying to sidestep the stereotype present in the source material, but in the most lazy way short of making the character a white man. Wouldn't a younger Asian actor have offered enough of a play on the trope — not to mention a play on the character's name — while also avoiding the utter tone-deafness of having Strange head to Tibet in order to learn about enlightenment from another white English person.

Sun: Too many stories, from Lawrence of Arabia to Avatar, relegate natives of a culture to background players and, at best, mentor, antagonist, love interest or sidekick. In Doctor Strange, Swinton fills the mentor role, Mads Mikkelsen is the villain and Rachel McAdams seems to be the damsel, leaving British actor Benedict Wong to play Dr. Strange's personal valet.

Of the four, he's the only one not glimpsed in the two-minute trailer, which mostly features Benedict Cumberbatch's Dr. Strange wandering through streets in Nepal and Hong Kong and learning magical martial arts from Swinton in a temple beautifully appointed with traditional Asian architectural features. In other words, Doctor Strange is a movie that looks very Oriental, except for the people part.

McMillan: To make matters worse — or, at least, more frustrating — there's the fact that, in the casting of Cumberbatch, Marvel managed to sidestep the possibility of offering up a nonwhite, non-male lead in one of its movies for the first time. Unlike, say, Iron Man or Captain America, there's nothing inherently gendered or racially-specific in the lead character's main concept — while it's unlikely that anyone other than a white man would be chosen to be the figurehead for the U.S. Army in WWII, or the head of a multinational arms manufacturer built up by his genius father, all that's really required of Dr. Strange is that they're a successful surgeon who suffers a terrible accident that sets them on a new path afterward. That role, literally, could have gone to anyone.

That train of thought points me toward a theory put forward by comic writer Kurt Busiek on social media recently — namely, that Dr. Strange as a character is an early example of the comic book industry whitewashing itself. The idea, as Busiek lays it out, is that artist and co-creator Steve Ditko "conceived Doc Strange as a stock 'mysterious Asian mystic' type", and later actually changed his look after writer Stan Lee wrote an origin in which he was Caucasian.

It's a weird coincidence that offers a worrying excuse to those supporting Marvel's decision to whitewash the Ancient One for the movie: It has historical precedent! Perhaps Doctor Strange, for all its positioning as a project that opens up horizons to new realities and new possibilities, has an accidental metatextual purpose of demonstrating how tied to the safer, cowardly white "norms" entertainment can be. continued next post

[GeneChing]

Sun: Which brings us to Ghost in the Shell and that first-look image of Scarlett Johansson this week. Ghost in the Shell (at least all previous iterations of it) also is set in Asia, albeit a very different one from that of Doctor Strange. There is no indication that the name of Johansson's protagonist has changed from the source material — IMDb still lists the character as "Kusanagi," although the press copy released alongside Thursday's image refers to her simply by her police rank, "the Major." That photo continues to send an ambiguous message — Johansson appears in a short black bob and darkened eyebrows, hewing closely to how Kusanagi is depicted in the comics.

Traditionally, this is a fan's greatest hope — an adaptation as faithful to the source material as possible. But in this case, Paramount/DreamWorks seem to have retained all the markers of Kusanagi's Japanese identity — her name, her basic physical appearance — except for the actual ethnicity of her portrayer. Perhaps the whitewashing controversy wouldn't have gone quite as viral had the producers cleanly erased all traces of the material's origins, as Edge of Tomorrow did in adapting the Japanese novel All You Need Is Kill and anglicizing protagonist Keiji Kiriya into William Cage, played by Tom Cruise.

McMillan: The comparison to the (lack of) outrage met with Edge of Tomorrow is an interesting one, but perhaps a more appropriate one is the response to the multiple attempts to make a live-action Akira with non-Asian actors — which is to say, any of the numerous American attempts to make a live-action Akira. Both Akira and Ghost in the Shell are better-known properties than All You Need Is Kill — which started life as a prose novel, which arguably also allowed for more visual/racial deviation as a result — and so any attempt to move away from the (to fans) iconic elements of the original are likely to be met with, at the very best, apathy or dismay. Add in the implied racism of casting only Caucasian actors, and you have something that seems utterly guaranteed to upset almost everyone.

By far the strongest response I've seen to the Ghost in the Shell casting comes from indie comic writer Jon Tsuei on Twitter, where he argued that the story is "inherently a Japanese story, not a universal one" because of the context in which it was created, specifically the cultural relationship the country had with technology, and how that feeds into the characters' relationships with tech in the story.

I'm not entirely sold on that line of thinking, I admit — in part because I think that the relationship with technology has become a universal thing in the decades since the original manga was published 27 years ago — but it touches on the degree to which the story is interconnected with the culture in which it first appeared. Watching filmmakers misunderstand that to such a degree as they appear to have in casting alone doesn't really offer much hope that they'll manage to handle the themes of the story with any greater sensitivity.

Sun: The reaction to Johansson's Ghost in the Shell look reminds me of the backlash when the Nina Simone biopic starring Zoe Saldana was released last month. In both cases, the filmmakers went to some lengths to alter the appearance of their leading ladies, rather than cast actresses who more naturally matched the subjects. What makes these two examples different from the countless instances of actors transforming themselves for a role — Steve Carell in Foxcatcher, Nicole Kidman in The Hours — is that Asian women and dark-skinned black women rarely get to be the leads in Hollywood movies. So whitewashing any Asian character is unfortunate, but keeping the character Asian-ish (but not actually Asian) is salt on the wound.

Many online commenters have trumpeted Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi as the ideal live-action Kusanagi — no one has come closer than her to doing it already, as robot pilot Mako Mori in Pacific Rim. Many other actresses of Asian descent have been mentioned as well, but the harsh truth is that their combined star wattage doesn't even come close to touching Johansson's.

And therein lies the problem: A Kikuchi (who is four years older than Johansson) — or a similar Asian-American actress — couldn't have debuted as the daughter of John Ritter and Sean Connery, as Johansson did in her early films. She likely wouldn't have gotten her big break as an equestrian-loving teen in Montana opposite Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer. (She might have made a good Rebecca in Ghost World.) She couldn't have effectively played an outsider in Tokyo in Lost in Transition, which catapulted her to stardom, or a Dutch painter's muse in Girl With a Pearl Earring, or Woody Allen's muse in Match Point, Scoop or Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She couldn't have played a London magician's assistant in The Prestige or Mary Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl. And most of all, she never, ever would have been cast as the Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

So how does an Asian actor become famous enough to play an Asian character? Judging by Speed Racer (starring Emile Hirsch), Dragonball Evolution (starring Shameless' Justin Chatwin), Ghost in the Shell and the upcoming Death Note (starring Nat Wolff), Hollywood has yet to answer the question.

You'd think with the trend towards China, getting some Asian actors in the cast would be good global marketing.

[Jimbo]

Don't even get me started on this...


It's a catch-22. There are no Asian (especially Asian-American) actors in Hollywood with any real star power, because they haven't been cast as leading characters in any 'important' movies; yet they haven't been cast as leading characters in 'important movies because they're Asian. You have no chance at winning a game you aren't allowed to play.

I really wouldn't mind it if Hollywood made a totally different movie based on Ghost in the Shell, changed to 'Euro-Americanized' names, places, etc. But to give white actors/actresses the names of Japanese characters from iconic Japanese cinema while actively excluding Japanese talent is a direct insult. It's certainly neither respectful nor a tribute to the original. In fact, it's such blatant disrespect any reasonable person has to wonder why, in this day and age of almost overwhelming political correctness and "inclusion", where EACH and EVERY group, subgroup and sub-subgroup (including LGBT) is actively recruited and cast, why East Asian actors are the only group actively and blatantly marginalized/excluded. The only Asians who are ubiquitously cast and actually allowed to play 'real human' characters in Hollywood are East Indians.

As far as global marketing for China, I'll bet that in general, even Chinese audiences watching American movies probably prefer seeing "American" (read white) actors in them over any Asian-American actors.

[GeneChing]

This is kind of silly, but there's more discussion on the Dr. Strange thread on this (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69097-Doctor-Strange/page2), so I'm ttt-ing this one.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXEUh61o18c

If Scar-Jo appears nekkid, all is forgiven. ;)

[-N-]

This is kind of silly, but there's more discussion on the Dr. Strange thread on this (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69097-Doctor-Strange/page2), so I'm ttt-ing this one.

If Scar-Jo appears nekkid, all is forgiven. ;)

Freddie Wong, what a nut :)

[GeneChing]

Ghost in the Shell Publisher 'Never Imagined' a Japanese Actress in the Lead Role (http://kotaku.com/ghost-in-the-shell-publisher-never-imagined-a-japanese-1771992584?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow)
Brian Ashcraft
Today 8:00am

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--9KPIUTfb--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/sbvso9t1wwztpzalwtip.jpg
Ghost in the Shell Publisher 'Never Imagined' a Japanese Actress in the Lead Role
[Image: Paramount/Dreamworks]

While Scarlett Johansson’s casting as Japanese cyborg Motoko Kusanagi has been controversial in the West, the original Tokyo-based publisher of the Ghost in the Shell manga seems totally cool with it.

Kodansha, one of Japan’s largest publishers, first put out the manga in 1989, and as AnimeNewsNetwork reports, began reprinting the manga after Production I.G successfully pitched the project to Hollywood on its behalf.

[Full disclosure: The now-defunct Kodansha International previously published two of my books.]

“Looking at her career so far, I think Scarlett Johansson is well-cast,” Sam Yoshiba, director of the international business division at Kodansha’s headquarters in Tokyo, told The Hollywood Reporter (via AnimeNewsNetwork and RocketNews). “She has the cyberpunk feel. And we never imagined it would be a Japanese actress in the first place.”

“This is a chance for a Japanese property to be seen around the world,” said Yoshiba.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, this comes after Yoshiba recently came back from the movie’s New Zealand set and said, as The Hollywood Reporter writes, “he was impressed by the respect being shown for the source material.”

Well, save for the bit about the main character being white and all.

While the manga’s publisher might have never imagined a Japanese actress, there was a recent report that stated the filmmakers ran tests to see if Johansson could look Asian through CG.

In Japan, however, many people online don’t seem too upset or even surprised about the casting. Some said they didn’t care because they had no plans to see the film anyway.

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Never mind the publisher's take. They sold the rights. What about the author?

[Cataphract]

I never felt that Kusanagi's cyborg body had a defined ethnicity. Many drawings show her with blue eyes. Maybe the author himself is to blame. Or the artist.
She reminds me of those Korean girls with plastic surgery for a western appearance. It fits the movie's central theme.

[GeneChing]

The complaint grows: first Ghost (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68356-Ghost-in-the-Shell&p=1293167), then Dr. Strange (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69097-Doctor-Strange), and now Power Rangers (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69253-Power-Rangers-reboot-movie). :o


OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Why Won’t Hollywood Cast Asian Actors?
(http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/opinion/why-wont-hollywood-cast-asian-actors.html?mwrsm=Facebook&_r=0&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2F)
https://cdn1.nyt.com/images/2016/04/23/opinion/23chow/23chow-articleLarge.jpg
DADU SHIN
By KEITH CHOW
APRIL 22, 2016
HERE’S an understatement: It isn’t easy being an Asian-American actor in Hollywood. Despite some progress made on the small screen — thanks, “Fresh Off the Boat”! — a majority of roles that are offered to Asian-Americans are limited to stereotypes that wouldn’t look out of place in an ’80s John Hughes comedy.

This problem is even worse when roles that originated as Asian characters end up going to white actors. Unfortunately, these casting decisions are not a relic of Hollywood’s past, like Mickey Rooney’s portrayal of I. Y. Yunioshi in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” but continue right up to the present.

Last week Disney and Marvel Studios released the trailer for “Doctor Strange,” an adaptation of the Marvel comic. After exhausting every “white man finds enlightenment in the Orient” trope in less than two minutes, the trailer presents Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, a Tibetan male mystic in the comics. Though her casting was no secret, there was something unsettling about the sight of Ms. Swinton’s clean-shaven head and “mystical” Asian garments. It recalled jarring memories of David Carradine from “Kung Fu,” the 1970s television series that, coincidentally, was itself a whitewashed version of a Bruce Lee concept.

A few days later, DreamWorks and Paramount provided a glimpse of Scarlett Johansson as the cyborg Motoko Kusanagi in their adaptation of the Japanese anime classic “Ghost in the Shell.” The image coincided with reports that producers considered using digital tools to make Ms. Johansson look more Asian — basically, yellowface for the digital age.

This one-two punch of white actors playing Asian characters showed how invisible Asian-Americans continue to be in Hollywood. (Not to be left out of the whitewashing news, Lionsgate also revealed the first images of Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa, another originally Asian character, in its gritty “Power Rangers” reboot.)

https://cdn1.nyt.com/images/2016/04/22/opinion/chow-ss-slide-HTTQ/chow-ss-slide-HTTQ-jumbo.jpg
Slide Show | Whitewashing, a Long History White actors playing Asian characters demonstrate how invisible Asian-Americans continue to be in Hollywood.

Why is the erasure of Asians still an acceptable practice in Hollywood? It’s not that people don’t notice: Just last year, Emma Stone played a Chinese-Hawaiian character named Allison Ng in Cameron Crowe’s critically derided “Aloha.” While that film incited similar outrage (and tepid box office interest), no national conversation about racist casting policies took place.

Obviously, Asian-Americans are not the only victims of Hollywood’s continuing penchant for whitewashing. Films like “Pan” and “The Lone Ranger” featured white actors playing Native Americans, while “Gods of Egypt” and “Exodus: Gods and Kings” continue the long tradition of Caucasians playing Egyptians.

In all these cases, the filmmakers fall back on the same tired arguments. Often, they insist that movies with minorities in lead roles are gambles. When doing press for “Exodus,” the director Ridley Scott said: “I can’t mount a film of this budget" and announce that “my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such.”

When the screenwriter Max Landis took to YouTube to explain the “Ghost in the Shell” casting, he used a similar argument. “There are no A-list female Asian celebrities right now on an international level,” he said, admonishing viewers for “not understanding how the industry works.”

Mr. Landis’s argument closely tracks a statement by the screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. In a leaked email exchange with studio heads, he complained about the difficulty of adapting “Flash Boys,” Michael Lewis’s book about the Wall Street executive Bradley Katsuyama, because “there aren’t any Asian movie stars.”

Hollywood seems untroubled by these arguments. It’s not about race, they say; the only color they see is green: The reason Asian-American actors are not cast to front these films is because not any of them have a box office track record.

But they’re wrong. If minorities are box office risks, what accounts for the success of the “Fast and Furious” franchise, which presented a broadly diverse team, behind and in front of the camera? Over seven movies it has grossed nearly $4 billion worldwide. In fact, a recent study by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that films with diverse leads not only resulted in higher box office numbers but also higher returns of investment for studios and producers.

And Hollywood’s argument is circular: If Asian-Americans — and other minority actors more broadly — are not even allowed to be in a movie, how can they build the necessary box office clout in the first place? To make matters worse, instead of trying to use their lofty positions in the industry to push for change, Hollywood players like Mr. Landis and Mr. Sorkin take the easy, cynical path.

[Jimbo]

Some of the exact same stuff I said in post #13.

Anyway, I won't be watching either this or the Dr. Strange movie.

Funny how the Smiths and all the African-Americans who boycotted the oscars for being "too white" and not giving enough opportunities to "people of color" are noticeably absent on this issue. I suppose Asian-American actors aren't people of ENOUGH color. :rolleyes:

[mickey]

Greetings Jimbo,

"Funny how the Smiths and all the African-Americans who boycotted the oscars for being "too white" and not giving enough opportunities to "people of color" are noticeably absent on this issue. I suppose Asian-American actors aren't people of ENOUGH color."

I do not think that the many "people of color" in Hollywood, regardless of national origin, have taken themselves to the point where they can actually be an influence. Getting paid seems to be the drive now days. It is most unfortunate. Bridges of mutual support should be established.

The "Asian Card" is the most powerful card to play right now simply because of the money that can be made in the Asian market. One well placed funk over representation can tank a movie's draw in the Asian market.

I found the Asian response to Dr Strange to be painfully slow on the draw. Yet, I see the momentum building.


mickey

[rett2]

If they make a good movie, who cares? The important thing to me is that the characters have the right air about them. They can't come across in their mannerisms as LA people. That's why Uma Thurman was a complete failure in Kill Bill (to my mind). She did not express the mindset. If SJ can be the Major, all power to her.

[Jimbo]

Going a little OT, but IMO, Uma Thurman did fine in Kill Bill, for what it is. Kill Bill is mostly a cartoonish spoof of the Kung Fu and samurai movie genres, as opposed to 'serious'. Sure, it's QT's homage to those genres, but few (or perhaps no) American directors who film 'homages' to the Kung Fu movie genre seem able to resist spoofing it.

[rett2]

Going a little OT, but IMO, Uma Thurman did fine in Kill Bill, for what it is. Kill Bill is mostly a cartoonish spoof of the Kung Fu and samurai movie genres, as opposed to 'serious'. Sure, it's QT's homage to those genres, but few (or perhaps no) American directors who film 'homages' to the Kung Fu movie genre seem able to resist spoofing it.

Even for a spoof, a woman swordfighter has to have a certain quality about her acting. Like Cheng Pei Pei. She has what I'm talking about. She has what Tarantino should have recognized and should have sought after. Even if it only shone through once in a while. Tarantino missed the boat completely with KB, and to be fair to Uma Thurman, maybe Tarantino just directed her badly. Something like what CPP has (but different) is what SJ has to find in herself to be the Major... and I think she probably can do it.

[Cataphract]

I can see how casting Tom Cruise as Akira (or rather Tetsuo) would have been very wrong. Totally worthy of nerd rage above all. But can somebody please explain to me why exactly casting Scarlett Johansson as Major Kusanagi is wrong? She plays a cyborg. The intro shows how her body is being assembled.

[GeneChing]

It's an American issue. America will soon need to grapple with not being #1 when it comes to movies.


Asian actors too busy to fret over Hollywood 'white-washing' (http://www.chron.com/news/article/Asian-actors-too-busy-to-fret-over-Hollywood-8333459.php)
Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press Updated 10:20 am, Thursday, June 30, 2016

http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/47/73/67/10468816/3/920x920.jpg
Photo: Andrew Medichini, AP
In this Sept. 5, 2007, file photo, Japanese actress Kaori Momoi poses during the photo call for the movie "Sukiyaki Western Django" at the 64th Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy. The film world of Asia is too busy making movies of its own to fret much about the debate slamming Hollywood - the casting of white people in roles written for Asians. Momoi, who appeared in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” as well as Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov’s “The Sun,” suggested acting was ultimately about individual talent, not skin color or nationality

http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/47/73/67/10468814/3/1024x1024.jpg
Photo: Lionel Cironneau, AP
In this May 18, 2013 file photo, actor Vijay Varma poses for photographers during a photo call for the film "Monsoon Shootout" at the 66th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France. The film world of Asia is too busy making movies of its own to fret much about the debate slamming Hollywood - the casting of white people in roles written for Asians. The Indian actor who starred in "Monsoon Shootout," a crime story with multiple endings, shown at Cannes, eloquently directed by Amit Kumar, pointed out insularity was prevalent in Bollywood as well

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/47/73/67/10468815/3/1024x1024.jpg
Photo: Thibault Camus, AP
In this May 11, 2016, file photo, actress Gong Li arrives on the red carpet for the screening of the film Cafe Society and the Opening Ceremony at the 69th international film festival, Cannes, southern France. The film world of Asia is too busy making movies of its own to fret much about the debate slamming Hollywood - the casting of white people in roles written for Asians. Li, the star of Chinese auteur Zhang Yimou’s films, such as “Raise the Red Lantern,” characterized the dilemma as a “problem of marketability.”

http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/47/73/67/10468817/3/1024x1024.jpg
Photo: Yoo Hyo-lim, AP
South Korean actress Claudia Kim poses during an interview in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, June 30, 2016. The film world of Asia is too busy making movies of its own to fret much about the debate slamming Hollywood -_ the casting of white people in roles written for Asians. Kim, known in her native South Korea as Soo Hyun, noted she has been lucky to play independent Asian women in most movies, such as Dr. Helen Cho in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the 2015 movie based on Marvel comics. (Yoo Hyo-lim/Yonhap via AP)

TOKYO (AP) — The film world of Asia, known for producing Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Brillante Mendoza and other greats, is too busy making movies of its own to fret much about the debate slamming Hollywood — the casting of white people in roles written for Asians.
While hurt, irritated or dumb-founded perhaps about the so-called "white-washing" syndrome, performers here aren't expressing the level of outrage of a Margaret Cho, George Takei or other Americans, The Associated Press has found.
Many shrugged off the phenomenon as inevitable, given commercial marketability needs, noting Asian films also cast well-known actors over and over.
Casting white people in non-white roles is as painfully old as Charlie Chan and Fu Manchu in American entertainment. That kind of monolithic casting continues — recently with the tapping of Tilda Swinton as a character that was originally Tibetan in the new Marvel "Dr. Strange" movie.
It's also a sensitive topic. South Korean actor Lee Byung-hun declined to be interviewed through his representative, who noted Lee was set to be in a Hollywood film.
Kaori Momoi, who appeared in "Memoirs of a Geisha," as well as Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov's "The Sun," suggested acting was ultimately about individual talent, not skin color or nationality.
Momoi praised the devotion, skill and professionalism of Scarlett Johansson, whose starring in "Ghost in the Shell," based on a Japanese manga, has stirred up an uproar as a prime example of "white-washing." Momoi played the mother of Johansson's character.
"I felt blessed to have worked with her," she said, urging actors to be selective of the directors they choose to work with. "And so what's fantastic is fantastic. What fails just fails."
Like other actors with experience in Asia, Momoi saw Hollywood more as an opportunity. She was already a superstar in Japan when she started acting in movies abroad about a decade ago. What she enjoyed was the challenging novelty of it all, "getting away from being Kaori Momoi," as she described it.
"Compared to Japan, there is so much potential and recognition in the U.S. for independent films," said Momoi in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.
She got to know film people at international festivals, including Berlin, which showed "Fukushima, Mon Amour," a film she was in. She has become a director herself, having two films to her credit, including "Hee," being released later this year, in which she also gives a harrowing rendition of an aging prostitute.
Claudia Kim, known in her native South Korea as Soo Hyun, noted she has been lucky to play independent Asian women in most movies, such as Dr. Helen Cho in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," the 2015 movie based on Marvel comics.
But she was baffled when she learned a white actress was picked for the Asian role in a Hollywood movie she had auditioned for. She declined to identify that film.
"It is definitely not a pleasant experience," she told the AP, calling the choice "ridiculous."
Vijay Varma, an India actor who starred in "Monsoon Shootout," a crime story with multiple endings that was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, pointed out insularity was prevalent in Bollywood as well.
Families dominate the business, although he was an exception and came from a family unrelated to movies. Bollywood counts on mass appeal, casting the "familiar," just like Hollywood, he added.
When an effort that defies boundaries turns out to be a great movie, like "Life of Pi," which starred an Indian actor, combined live action with computer graphics, and had a Taiwan-born director Ang Lee, "it feels really good," Varma said.
While some Japanese may wonder why Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi is the heroine in "Memoirs of a Geisha," they also feel no qualms routinely casting Japanese to play Chinese and other non-Japanese Asian roles, feigning embarrassingly phony accents and mannerisms.
Landing roles in Asian movies is relatively off-limits for Americans, usually relegated to blatantly "foreign" roles. Koji Fukada's "Sayonara" starred Bryerly Long, an American, as a dying woman in Japan, but the film also starred a humanoid robot as her loyal companion.
Gong Li, the star of Chinese auteur Zhang Yimou's films, such as "Raise the Red Lantern," characterized the dilemma as a "problem of marketability."
"Asian culture has not meshed well with U.S. film culture. It's not integrated. There are a lot of American A-listers who are making movies in China right now, who have not done well. So it's the same whether you cast a famous actor or not not-so famous one. Chinese people don't know who they are," she said as she walked the red carpet recently at Cannes.
Examples abound. "Hollywood Adventures" had an American setting and Chinese stars but was doomed by the stiff translation of English dialogue. Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen made the action fantasy "Outcast" for the Chinese market, where it flopped. Jackie Chan's "Dragon Blade," co-starring Adrien Brody and John Cusack, was a hit in China, but its U.S. showing failed to replicate the martial arts superstar's past Hollywood successes.
Matt Damon and director Zhang Yimou are hoping for a better reception in their upcoming science-fiction thriller "The Great Wall."
And many performers in both places hope for a more multicultural future.
Respecting diversity in casting could lead not only to better films but also a better world, said Monisha Shiva, an Indian-American actress who has worked in both India and the U.S., and found the former to be more empowering.
"I was the center. I was the story," she said in a telephone interview from New York.
"The magic of acting is to give people visions and imagination, and imagine a different world. You want that. It's important to use actors of color," said Shiva. "Art is to start to make new visions. And it's a way to heal."
___
Associated Press writers Angela Chen in Hong Kong and Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
___
Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama

[Jimbo]

Honestly, I don't see why Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, etc. actors/actresses based in their native countries would even be asked what they might think of Hollywood whitewashing. A high percentage of Asians in Asia period wouldn't even comprehend the concept of whitewashing. I've always said that it's an Asian-American issue, not an Asian issue. I give far more credibility to what George Takei, B.D. Wong, Margaret Cho and others have had to say on the matter than I would Kaori Momoi, Gong Li, et al. There are many talented Asian-American actors out there. Why have several of them relocated to work as actors in the countries of their ancestry, even if some of them couldn't even speak the language?

And for anyone who says that white (or black) people couldn't become big stars in Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, etc., that is a weak argument. None of those countries are as diverse and multi-cultural as the U.S., which likes to tout that fact, but does not reflect it onscreen.

[GeneChing]

srsly?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U9pxDoOqh0

I luv Japan!

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPWTwmCkQFk

[@PLUGO]

Ghost in the Shell Official Trailer 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYrdoQAjcww

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIW1CsLuuNM

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRkb1X9ovI4

[GeneChing]

Live-action Ghost in the Shell brings back main anime cast for its Japanese-dubbed version (http://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/03/10/live-action-ghost-in-the-shell-brings-back-main-anime-cast-for-its-japanese-dubbed-version/)
Casey Baseel 4 days ago

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The protagonist of the Hollywood anime adaptation will always look like Scarlet Johansson, but she won’t always sound like her.

The titles of a lot of anime and manga were chosen by their creators simply because they sound cool, but “Ghost in the Shell” actually has a strong connection to the events of the series. Ghost in the Shell’s most defining characteristic is the prevalence of technology that allows people to transfer their consciousness (ghost) into a different mechanical body or vessel (shell), and the franchise’s plotlines often explore the military, political, and philosophical ramifications of those capabilities.

▼ Trailer for the upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRkb1X9ovI4

So it’s sort of fitting that even when Ghost in the Shell makes the leap to live-action with the soon-to-be-released Hollywood adaptation, when Scarlet Johansson’s character, The Major, opens her mouth, in some versions she’ll sound exactly like the 1995 Ghost in the Shell anime movie’s protagonist Motoko Kusanagi.

Ahead of the live-action Ghost in the Shell’s release in Japanese theaters, it’s been announced that the Japanese-dubbed version of the film will feature the voice of Atsuko Tanaka as The Major. Tanaka voiced Kusanagi in not only the 1995 theatrical anime that served as the franchise’s breakout moment in the international anime and sci-fi communities, but also its sequel Innocence and the Stand Alone Complex TV series.

▼ Oddly enough, the red bodysuit The Major can be seen wearing in the trailer is inspired by Kusanagi’s outfit from Ghost in the Shell: Arise, in which Tanaka was replaced by a different voice actress.
https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/gs-2.png?w=580&h=312

Also reprising their roles from the anime film and TV series are Akio Otsuka as Kusanagi’s burley cohort Batou and Koichi Yamadera as cybernetics-averse Togusa. Having seen much of the live-action Ghost while recording their dialogue, Ostuka expressed his admiration for the film, saying “There were many scenes that were done just like they were in the anime, and I was happy to see that the filmmakers have such an obvious respect for the source material.”

As with many foreign films, the live-action Ghost in the Shell will screen in both its original language (English) with Japanese subtitles and also in Japanese-dubbed format. Tanaka is hoping some fans come out to see the latter version, though. “I am so happy that the Hollywood version is being dubbed with the original cast,” the voice actress said. “Closing my eyes, and just working off of Otsuka and Yamadera’s voices, like animation scenes come flying, it was a mysterious experience.”

▼ As a side benefit, closing her eyes would also help prevent being distracted by questionable set design in the live-action film.
https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/gs-3.png?w=580&h=312

Ghost in the Shell opens in Japanese theaters on April 7.

Source: Livedoor News via Jin
Images: YouTube/Paramount Pictures

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s now got the opening theme from the Ghost in the Shell PlayStation game stuck in his head.

I gotta say that one of the things I find enchanting about ScaJo is her voice.

[GeneChing]

MAJOR BACKFIRE :p


‘Ghost In The Shell’s Viral Campaign Has Already Backfired A Bit (http://uproxx.com/movies/ghost-in-the-shell-clip-i-am-major-memes/)
#TWITTER
CALEB READING
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
03.13.17

Ghost In The Shell opens March 31st and is continuing its marketing blitz — from which we’ve already seen the first trailer, a Superbowl spot, the second trailer, a clip, and a featurette — with a new promo (above) and a viral marketing campaign (below) which has summarily backfired.

The viral marketing campaign kicked off with this video set to FKA Twigs’ “Figure 8”:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsTt618JHsw

In the promo, Scarlett Johansson informs us “I am hunted. I am the hunter. I am Major.” The video then points viewers to IAmMajor.me, where they can upload a photo and a caption to answer the question, “Who are you?” Considering the film has been under fire for casting Johansson as a white, Americanized version of the Major, you might believe what happened next.

As is the case whenever a company lets the public input their own captions, things predictably went pear-shaped, with VzA starting things off:

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-01_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-02_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-03_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

Whoopsidoodle.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

From there, other folks on Twitter replied with jokes about other instances of white actors playing Asian characters, like this reference to how Iron Fist actor Finn Jones briefly quit Twitter (they always come back) after scathing criticisms.

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-04_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-05_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-06_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-07_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-08_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-09_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-10_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-11_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

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VIA TWITTER

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/ghost-in-the-shell-i-am-major-parody-13_twitter.jpg
VIA TWITTER

(Via Paramount Pictures, Screen Crush, ValerieComplex, helpmeskeletor, Maria_Giesela, Nice_White_Lady, DLohRidah, IWriteAllDay_, gleebix, and ZweiXross)

Whatev about Danny Rand being originally white - these Ghost in the Shell meme spoofs are pretty funny.

[GeneChing]

Would it have done better with an Asian starlet?


Ghost in the Shell dies at the box office (http://www.polygon.com/2017/4/3/15159676/ghost-in-the-shell-flops-ticket-sales)
Controversial movie met with yawns at release
by Ben Kuchera Apr 3, 2017, 9:45am EDT

https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YPdPjlDfonS1RLHMbwwYssngcqg=/0x0:3945x2508/920x613/filters:focal(1658x939:2288x1569):format(webp)/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/54044657/GTS_04507R4c_rgb.0.jpg
Jasin Boland/Paramount Pictures

The live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell died at the box office this weekend, bringing in $19 million in ticket sales against a budget of $110 million. The film brought in $40 million internationally, although it has yet to open in Japan or China.

Ghost in the Shell suffered from negative buzz every step of the way, from the casting of Scarlett Johansson in the lead role, a character who was Japanese in the original manga and animated versions of the story. Fans used an official meme generator to show their displeasure at the casting.



View image on Twitter (https://twitter.com/riotgrrlriot/status/841264600565788672/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.polygon.com%2F2017%2F4%2F 3%2F15159676%2Fghost-in-the-shell-flops-ticket-sales)
Follow
Pink Veronica 🏳️*🌈 @riotgrrlriot
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C6zFj6RWoAAc8TA.jpg

I Am White. I Am Appropriated. #IAmMajor http://www.iammajor.me/m/HJKkxMEsl
5:28 AM - 13 Mar 2017
421 421 Retweets 876 876 likes

The Steve Aoki remix of the original theme was also met with derision from fans and those with ears.

But the real issue may have been that the film was just bad, even when you remove the issues of casting and the clumsy marketing.

“Ghost in the Shell, by contrast, is a movie that says absolutely nothing,” our review states. “It’s a generic story told by a generic director in a generic way. The plot, predictable as it is, trundles along only because our heroes repeatedly prove themselves oblivious to obvious traps. A major plot point hinges on a woman opening up to a complete stranger about her dead daughter within 30 seconds of meeting her … because, sure, that’s what people do? The film doesn’t even bother explaining the villain’s motivation.”

We’ll see how the movie does internationally, but we’re going to go out on a limb and guess that a sequel is not on the way.

[GeneChing]

How many nails doth a coffin make?


Is a Disappointing Ghost in the Shell the Nail in the Coffin of Hollywood Whitewashing? (http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/04/ghost-in-the-shell-box-office-whitewashing-bad-for-business)
The film’s anemic box office is only the latest financial fallout of Asian erasure.
by JOANNA ROBINSON
APRIL 2, 2017 3:54 PM

http://media.vanityfair.com/photos/58dd352b65fc5645669ff442/master/w_960,c_limit/whitewashing-ghost-in-the-shell-iron-fist.png
From left: courtesy of Netflix, courtesy of Paramount, courtesy of Legendary

It’s become increasingly impossible to ignore general social pushback when it comes to Asian representation in film and television. Whether it’s cut-and-dried whitewashing (e.g., casting a white performer in an Asian role) or slightly more complex cases of cultural appropriation, the hue and cry from progressive voices in film and TV criticism has called for an end to white leads in Asian and Asian-inspired properties. But Hollywood—a town driven by dollars and not always sense—is more likely to listen when protests hurt the bottom line. Ghost in the Shell, the Scarlett Johansson-starring adaptation of the popular Japanese manga, is only the latest controversial project to stumble at the box office. Will this misstep finally put an end to whitewashing?

According to Box Office Mojo, in its first weekend, Ghost in the Shell pulled in approximately $20 million domestically on a $110 million budget—below even the conservative prediction that site made earlier in the week. That number looks even more anemic when compared with Lucy, Johansson’s R-rated 2014 film, which pulled in $43.8 million on its opening weekend. Unlike Ghost in the Shell, Lucy wasn’t based on a pre-existing property and didn’t have an established fanbase to draw on. But the Johansson casting has clearly alienated fans of the original manga and anime versions of Ghost in the Shell, and their dampened enthusiasm appears to have discouraged newcomers as well.

The controversy around Johansson’s casting has plagued Ghost in the Shell since late 2014. Johansson stars as Major (whose full name is “Major Motoko Kusanagi” in the manga), a synthetic, cybernetic body housing the brain of a dead Japanese woman. Both fans of the original and advocates for Asian actors in Hollywood argued that a Japanese actress should have been cast in the role, while a spokesperson for Ghost in the Shell publisher Kodansha gave Johansson its blessing, saying the publisher “never imagined it would be a Japanese actress in the first place.” Johansson herself defended the film this week, saying:


I think this character is living a very unique experience in that she has a human brain in an entirely machinate body. I would never attempt to play a person of a different race, obviously. Hopefully, any question that comes up of my casting will be answered by audiences when they see the film.

But it seems audiences weren’t inclined to give the film that chance. There’s no ignoring the fact that controversy cast a cloud over the film, and it’s difficult not to draw a direct line from that to the movie’s disappointing opening weekend.

Ghost in the Shell is not the first project to feel the burn of “race-bent” casting. Though other factors may have added to their unpopularity, The Last Airbender, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Aloha, Pan, and more have all foundered at the box office. (These films also received unfavorable reviews, but bad reviews alone can’t snuff out box-office potential.) Matt Damon’s heavily criticized, China-set film The Great Wall didn’t fare much better. In addition to becoming an Oscar night punchline for Jimmy Kimmel, the movie grossed only $45 million domestically on a $150 million budget. Marvel’s too-big-to-fail Avengers installment Doctor Strange is the recent exception that proves the rule: not even Tilda Swinton’s controversial casting in the historically Asian role of the Ancient One could slow this film down. It made more than $232 million domestically and $677.5 million worldwide.

But since Netflix won’t release ratings data to the public, the jury is still out on whether the Marvel brand was also enough to combat the furor over Finn Jones being cast as the historically white Danny Rand in the latest Defenders installment, Iron Fist. (This is a case in which “cultural appropriation”—Danny is a better martial artist than all the other Asian characters around him—inspired public outcry, rather than “whitewashing.”) While various tech companies have claimed in the past to be able to analyze Netflix’s data, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos himself has historically pushed back on those results. One such company, 7Park Data, claims that Iron Fist defied both bad reviews and controversy to become Netflix’s “most-binged drama premiere”—meaning audiences allegedly tore through episodes at a faster clip than usual. But by the only Netflix-sanctioned metric available—the site’s soon-to-be-gone star rating—Iron Fist is lagging behind other Defenders shows. As of publication, it had earned only three stars from users, compared with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage—which all pulled in 4.25 or higher.

Even if Marvel’s bottom line is controversy-proof so far, it’s unlikely that its parent company, the increasingly and intentionally diverse Walt Disney Studios, will want to weather further public relations storms like the ones that swirled around both Doctor Strange and Iron Fist. Paramount, too, seems to have kept its head down when it came to deploying Ghost in the Shell. After it was revealed that the visual effects company Lola VFX had done tests on Ghost in the Shell in order to digitally “shift” the “ethnicity” of a Caucasian actress and make her appear more Asian in the film (there’s disagreement over whether that actress was Johansson herself), the wind went out of the studio’s sails. Ghost in the Shell also screened very late for critics—a sure sign that a studio would prefer to mitigate any damage caused by negative word of mouth and early reviews.

But what has tipped the needle on the issue of Asian erasure in film and television from progressive social concern to bottom-line disrupter? Pushback on both whitewashing and limited opportunities for Asian performers in Hollywood has recently gotten a boosted signal, thanks to both social media and the uncensored honesty of popular Asian and East Asian actors like Kal Penn, John Cho, Constance Wu, Aziz Ansari, and Ming-Na Wen. And that boosted signal comes at a time when, according to a 2016 MPAA study, younger (and likely more socially progressive) Asian-American film-goers between the ages of 18 and 24 are going to more movies, while the Caucasian film-going population is on the decline.

But domestic box office alone may not be enough to bring about social change. With Hollywood increasingly obsessed with appealing to lucrative Asian markets abroad, it’s as yet unclear whether casting white leads in Asian-centric or inspired properties hurts the global bottom line. The Great Wall, directed by Chinese legend Zhang Yimou, did decently overseas, making 86.4 percent of its total intake on foreign screens. And while Ghost in the Shell has yet to open in either Japan or China, it took in roughly $40.1 million in other foreign markets this weekend, including Russia, Germany, and South Korea. Then again, the massive global box-office returns of films with diverse casts, including Rogue One and the Fast and the Furious franchise, render any argument that Caucasian actors are required for international success null and void.

Meanwhile, at home, the protests against Asian erasure are only growing more intense. While still licking its wounds from the critical drubbing it received for Iron Fist, Netflix is staring down the barrel of another appropriation controversy. This time, it’s the popular manga Death Note that has gotten a Seattle-based makeover, putting Caucasian actors Nat Wolff and Margaret Qualley in roles that originally had the last names Yagami and Amane. Willem Dafoe will voice the Japanese spirit Ryuk. The protest around Death Note is already significantly louder than for other past American adaptations of Asian properties like The Ring, The Grudge, and The Departed.

Though America itself is a very socially divided country, the cool, impartial truth of box-office returns reveals a film and TV industry that is facing a sea change when it comes to Asian representation. History may soon look back on the Asian erasure of Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, and Ghost in the Shell with an even more unfavorable eye. Just as blackface in film and TV gradually became unacceptable (and more recently than you may think), the marginalization and appropriation of Asian culture could be on its way out the door—with these recent financial disappointments only serving as a last gasp of a bygone era.

[GeneChing]

Anyone see this yet?


China Box Office: 'Ghost in the Shell' Wins Weekend, but Not By Enough (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-ghost-shell-wins-weekend-992341)
12:47 AM PDT 4/10/2017 by Patrick Brzeski

http://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2017/04/gts-21233_r2_-_h_-_2017.jpg
Courtesy of Paramount.
'Ghost in the Shell'

The troubled Scarlett Johansson sci-fi thriller escaped embarassment in the Middle Kingdom but didn't put up big enough numbers to turn around its global fortunes.
Paramount's Ghost in the Shell opened at the top of the Chinese box office over the weekend, earning $21.4 million to beat a declining Kong: Skull Island, which took $11.2 million in its third frame.

The Scarlett Johansson sci-fi thriller's China opening cleanly eclipsed its desultory $18.6 debut in North America, where a high-profile "whitewashing" controversy and tepid reviews took a toll. But while $20 million-plus isn't Hollywood's worst China launch this year — Passengers opened to $17.5 million during a particularly unfavorable pre-Chinese New Year frame — it's not quite the heroic recoup the studios have come to occasionally hope for from China (See Resident Evil: The Final Chapter's massive $94 million Middle Kingdom opening, or Pacific Rim's $45.3 million bow in 2013, which proved instrumental to the film getting a sequel).

Word of mouth for Ghost in the Shell hasn't been bad. It currently has a rating of 6.6 on leading reviews aggregator Douban, not far behind Kong's score of 6.8. And Chinese mobile ticketing service Weying, which took a 10 percent stake in the film last month, gave it a strong marketing push across its platforms. The cult Japanese anime on which the film is based is much less known in China than other mainstream Japanese properties, however.

With China declining to blow the doors off and Japan even less enthusiastic — the film opened in second place in the source material's home, taking just $3.2 million — the Rupert Sanders-directed effects spectacle looks inescapably like a loss-maker. The movie has earned $124.1 million globally, but cost $110 million to make, before marketing.

After three weekends and 17 days stomping across Chinese screens, Kong's local total has climbed to $160.9 million. The Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. period monster epic should push past Vin Diesel's xXx: The Return of Xander Cage ($163.6 million) sometime this week to become the biggest international release of 2017 in China, so far.

The local competition made only modest gains over the weekend. Beijing Enlight's mystery thriller The Devotion of Suspect X, an adaptation of a best-selling Japanese mystery novel, added $9.3 million for a 10-day cume of $52.3 million. Perfect World Pictures' police action thriller Extraordinary Mission earned $3.5 million, bumping its total to $20.4 million.

On Friday, all contenders are expected to be drowned out in the roar of The Fate of the Furious racing out of the gate. Local analysts will be watching closely to see if the latest installment in the hit franchise can come within shouting distance of Furious 7's historic $390 million showing in 2015.

PATRICK BRZESKI
THRnews@thr.com

[Jimbo]

The original anime movie was great. I wouldn't even bother watching this one. Even if the lead were played by a Japanese actress. IMO, some things should be left alone. Live-action adaptations of anime typically fail...badly. And usually for good reason.

What's worse is when white actors/actresses are cast with the original characters' Japanese names and/or it's still in a Japanese setting. I believe in the same way they were (are?) planning to do with Akira. Hopefully this puts the kibosh on that idea.

Regarding whitewashing, it's important to recognize when it's there and when it's not. Otherwise, we become the boy who cried wolf. IMO, Ghost in the Shell is a perfect example of whitewashing. Regardless if the creator of the original OK'd it or not. The concept of whitewashing is alien to most people in Japan, China, etc. You pretty much have to be from (or have lived long-term and have awareness in) the culture where whitewashing has been a long tradition to have a clue.

[Cataphract]

IMO, some things should be left alone.
They are rebooting Escape from New York btw.


I believe in the same way they were (are?) planning to do with Akira.
With Tom Cruise as Kaneda. Last time I've heard it was in development hell.


Regarding whitewashing, it's important to recognize when it's there and when it's not. Otherwise, we become the boy who cried wolf. IMO, Ghost in the Shell is a perfect example of whitewashing.
Noooo! Major Kusanagi is a brain in a prosthetic body. She could be a black guy. She's got blue eyes and a totally nondescript face. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113568/mediaindex I totally hate seeing ScarJo in every SciFi movie these days. (I like her as Black Widow.) But that's not whitewashing. That's ripping off ***** fanboys.

[Jimbo]

Noooo! Major Kusanagi is a brain in a prosthetic body. She could be a black guy. She's got blue eyes and a totally nondescript face. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113568/mediaindex I totally hate seeing ScarJo in every SciFi movie these days. (I like her as Black Widow.) But that's not whitewashing. That's ripping off ***** fanboys.

Then rename her character 'Major Silvstedt' or something like that, and set it in America or somewhere in Europe. Since ScarJo is 100% European. I knew the character's eyes were blue. And some Japanese with Ainu mix have green eyes. Some 100% Asians also have blue eyes, unrelated to blue eyes in Europeans. It's rare, but it happens. My paternal grandfather, my dad and his brothers (all Japanese) had wavy hair and facial features (eyes, nose, etc.) that made them look 'hapa' or some type of Native American, but they weren't. They certainly did not fit the stereotypical Western image of a Japanese man. Over the years, a number of white people were unclear as to their race, unless they knew them and their names. That may be pushing it, but maybe you get my point.

As I mentioned, change the name and the setting. BTW, I'm not a 'fanboy' of the anime, but I thought it was great.

[Cataphract]

Then rename her character 'Major Silvstedt' or something like that, and set it in America or somewhere in Europe.
The original 1995 movie warrants a Major with a non-Japanese shell and Japanese name, optically and story-wise. It is a plot device. Ghost in the Shell is not about race, but touches on that topic when the character's identity or ghost is questioned time and again. The Major isn't even sure whether she might be 100% robot.

Her optics are mercurial as to her ethnicity and sex. Should have cast somebody with a mixed background probably.


Since ScarJo is 100% European.
More like 100% American. :D Sorry.


That may be pushing it, but maybe you get my point.
Ok got it, but your relatives weren't assembled in a lab.


As I mentioned, change the name and the setting. BTW, I'm not a 'fanboy' of the anime, but I thought it was great.
I meant the ScarJo fanboys getting ripped of by casting ScarJo for every other movie. GITS is great.

[GeneChing]

Perhaps it got Lost in Translation?*


Why Japan Won't Save 'Ghost in the Shell' From Being a Box-Office Flop (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-japan-wont-save-ghost-shell-being-a-box-office-flop-992349)
7:56 AM PDT 4/10/2017 by Gavin J. Blair

Photofest
'Ghost in the Shell' (2017), left; 'Ghost in the Shell' (1995)

Despite the generally positive local reaction to the Hollywood addition to the beloved franchise, the film's home fanbase is too small to make a difference.
Japan isn't going to save Ghost in the Shell from registering red ink, though the filmmakers may be able to take some solace from the way their version is being received in its birthplace.

The Rupert Sanders-directed, Scarlett Johansson-starring take on the classic manga and anime opened Friday in Japan, taking in $3.2 million from 233,000 admissions at 611 screens over the weekend. Its Saturday-Sunday total was $2.4 million, landing it behind Sing, which topped the box-office charts for the fourth weekend. (Local charts are calculated on admissions rather than revenue, putting Ghost in the Shell third behind Disney's Moana.)

Despite a committed marketing campaign in Japan — including a talk-show event featuring Sanders, Johansson and Takeshi Kitano to unveil the trailer in November and holding the world premiere in Tokyo last month — the film is unlikely to finish with more than $15 million in its spiritual homeland of Japan.

In its favor, Ghost in the Shell is attracting better word of mouth and reviews in Japan than it has in the U.S. It currently has 3.5-star rating on Yahoo Movies Japan, which is, remarkably enough, higher than the 3.2 stars held by Mamoru Oshii's seminal 1995 anime. Meanwhile, on other review sites, the new version has scored 4 stars and ratings of up to 75 percent.

Of the tens of thousands of tweets in Japan about the new Paramount version, more than 80 percent have been positive. But therein lies part of the problem: the tweets are in the tens, not hundreds, of thousands. While Oshii's original Ghost in the Shell (Kokaku Kidotai) has an adoring cult following in Japan, it is a relatively small one. The film took in just $2.3 million at the Japanese box office in 1995, a figure surpassed by Sanders' version on Saturday and Sunday alone.

And with 22 years having passed since the release of the anime, and 28 years since Masamune Shirow's manga hit bookstores, its core (predominantly male) fans are now in their 30s and 40s. Ghost in the Shell doesn't have the family-friendliness of a Disney or a Hayao Miyazaki film, nor the appeal to teenagers that made Your Name such a phenomenon.

Even the presence of Johansson, a popular star in Japan who appears in local TV commercials, isn't going to bring the millions into theaters needed to make it into the kind of megahit that would help recover the reported $200 million Paramount, DreamWorks and its Chinese investors have sunk into the production and marketing of the project.

*This is funny to true ScarJo fans. ;)