It seems that the rights for the production of a Live-Action movie of that all time masterpiece (and one of my all time favourite) in manga/anime/science-fiction that is Ghost in the Shell have been sold to DreamWorks and that the designated director will be Stephen Spielberg.
A R G H!
That has been my first reaction to the news, and apparently I’m not the only one being worried around.
It’s not just the always present fear of the fan-base to see its sacred and favourite passion torn away by someone who doesn’t have a clue what he/she/it is dealing with, and not even only the reasonable and pratically proven rules that a 2 hours Hollywood movie won’t be able to express nothing even remotely close to the complexity required by something like GITS. I mean, I loved Jackson’s work on the Lord Of The Ring, but nevertheless, I felt some pain in seeing how badly the transposition was from the book, and we’re talking about something I regard as a miracle: I was expecting far worse. Maybe Peter Jackson had the right ideas, maybe he was lucky, maybe he simply found himself inspired enough to give his maximum, and still the result was great but somehow disappointing for “us” fun, and rightly so, I believe.
Now take Spielberg, the present one not the E.T or Schindler’s List or Amistad one, but the producer/director who destroied A.I and raped War of the Worlds and Minority Report… it’s a nightmare coming true for any GITS fan out there. Just like knowing that except for a miracle (and I’d call a cancellation of the live-action project one) your favourite creature is going to be tortured and eventually killed in a way only Hollywood is known to do, and we all are aware of how much Hollywood-ian Spielberg is, especially lately. We’ve seen this happening before with japanese productions taken to the big-screen by the USA industry, we’re going to see it with Dragonball (again: unless the usual miracle) and I really fear not even Maj. Kusanagi could escape safely this time.
There are things that should never be included in a “let's make a movie to pile up some cash“-list, certainly GITS is one of them.
Nothing is listed on IMDB yet, let’s hope this is going to remain on someone’s desk forever!
Science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who co-wrote the epic film “2001: A Space Odyssey” and raised the idea of communications satellites in the 1940s, died Wednesday at age 90, an associate confirmed. Clarke died early Wednesday at a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since the 1950s, said Scott Chase, the secretary of the nonprofit Arthur C. Clarke Foundation.
I’m back right now after a night out in Shepherd’s Bush which ended with half a roasted chicken for dinner, which is definitely a good way to end a nice Saturday.
Anyway, not the point, the real point is that I was out with a couple of house-mates to watch I Am Legend. First of all, before all the comments (not many in fact), a couple of things you need to know about me:
I love science-fiction and the apocalyptic branch of it,
I’m a fan of Will Smith since the times of Indipendence Day and Bad Boys
Now, this said, the movie is good.
It’s not a masterpiece, and it wasn’t probably meant to be one, but it’s 158 minutes of good fun and a good two or three jumps on the chair too, if you know what I mean ;)
Will Smith is just superb, and for most of the movie is basically acting all alone, with just a dog to share the scene with, which I’m sure must have not be really easy. The setting is quite amazing, and the loneliness of his character is well portraied in how the abandoned New York is pictured out; I’ve actually heard that to shot the movie they basically closed half of downtown N.Y. to everyone… let me tell you I’m not surprised to know that the people living (& working) there were quite upset with that. But hey, the result is quite nice.
So what: I haven’t read the book yet (it’s in my Amazon.co.uk wishlist waiting its call…) so I can’t tell how the transposition had been made from paper to screen. I’m usually more a book fan than movie in this kind of situations, so I’ll probably end up liking the book more when I’ll read it. For now the movie is a product good enough to be suggested to friends.
If you haven’t done it yet, go and watch it! :D
It’s a real nice piece of Japan animation, a well done product perfectly in style with the Miyazaki’s flavour I love so much.
To a very careful observer is perfectly clear this is not one of the master’s work, it’s just different. I left the cinema with a strong feeling of something left incomplete, something that was not complete all around, just like a little amount of the magic went lost between the screen and my eyes. Probably I was just expecting a little too much from it, waiting for it to be another Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Porco Rosso or Spirited Away (definitely my all time favourite among Miyazaki’s works)… Gorō did a very good job, in line with Studio Ghibli good tradition, but far away from the perfection of his father’s jobs.
All said, it still remains one of the finest animation product of the last year or two, now let’s wait for 2008 next step in Hayao Miyazaki’s career, which sure won’t disappoint my anime-fan side :)
My passion for anime & manga is famous.
My deep and unconditionated love for the Ghost In The Shell saga is almost legendary.
So imagine my whole self giggling and happily jumping around when I found out that an official trailer for the new chapter of the saga has been released! Looks interesting… even if the quality is not exactly HDTV ;)
I really don’t know if this YouTube embedd thing is going to work, but I’ll give it a try. In the case, let me know and I’ll change it to a plain old-fashioned link. Enjoy!
Production I.G has revealed in a stock disclosure that the upcoming Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Solid State Society will be a 100 minute movie released in summer 2006. Anime News Network reports the movie is being produced in Hi-Vision, a format used by Japanese broadcast networks to support wide-screen televisions. The same production team, including main staff, will be carried over from the TV series. It takes place two years after the refugee riot incident. A significantly larger Section 9, with over 20 new officers, investigates terrorist actions related to a wizard-like hacker “Kugutsu Mawashi.”
(Source: Randomwire.com)
I have just finished to buy the first Stand Alone Complex season in DVD, and let me miss some other lunches and I will rich enough to be able to pay for all the second season ones too.
If you don’t know what I am talking about, trust me when I say you’re losing something fundamental in history of science-fiction-anime-cyberpunk-and-whatever for this millenium, because nothing is like Ghost In The Shell (and its many spin-offs and/or sequel).
It’s dreamy, it’s evocative, it’s science-fiction and philosphy mixed together at the highest level anyone could ever imagine… it’s just pure magic in the form of drawn art (to be right: written art, before…). Masamune Shirow is a genius, and there is no better way to understand that than to read to its manga, or to watch Ghost in The Shell.
If you like science fiction, this is a must everyone should see at least once in his/her lifetime, and right now, when everyone (including me) were thinking that with Innocence and Stand Alone Complex (1 & 2) everything had came to an end, *puff* another movie is about to be relased.
That’s going to be fantastic, trust me, we’re not going to be disappointed.
That’s exciting: from now on I am officially counting the days separating me from Solid State Society’s relase. ^___^
