Ghost in the Shell: Scarlett Johansson wut?

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Sep 12, 2013
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At a glance, this seems like more Hollywood 'white washing' and many fans are perplexed by Motoko Kusanagi being played by Scarlett Johansson. I dunno, if Hollywood was just Americanizing the whole thing and bringing it all to a kind of futuristic New York City or something, I get that could slide. At the moment though, it seems like it's a story in Japan, with Japenese named character, but mostly played by Americans.

I guess we'll see how this really develops when production moves ahead or we get an actual trailer.

I have mixed feeling about this because I wondered if Hollywood would turn to Anime/Manga when they run out of popular comic book heroes. Fairly recently, this has already been done with the great action movie Edge of Tomorrow that was loosely based on the Manga "All You Need Is Kill". Tom Cruise played his character Cage, not Keiji Kiriya lol.

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http://io9.gizmodo.com/our-first-look-at-scarlett-johansson-as-ghost-in-the-sh-1770937689


The Western adaptation of the iconic cyberpunk manga and anime series Ghost in the Shell has entered production—and with that news, we have our first look at Scarlett Johansson in the lead role as Major Motoko Kusanagi.

The star of Masamune Shirow’s smash hit manga—translated into an iconic animated series by Production I.G. in serveral series and OVAs over the past 20 years—Kusanagi is the cybernetically-enhanced head of counter-terrorist organization Public Security Section 9, operating in a dystopic 21st century Japan.

It still bothers us a lot that this role isn’t being played by an Asian actor—but at least the the shot released of Johansson captures the vibe of Shirow’s dark world pretty decently. Hey the ethnicity of the lead character doesn’t matter as long as they got the hairstyle right, right? Ugh.


Directed by Snow White and the Huntsman’s Rupert Sanders, Ghost in the Shell is expected to release on March 31st, 2017.

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Don't mind the casting but I do worry about ...

Directed by Snow White and the Huntsman’s Rupert Sanders
 
To be fair, a lot of anime females look white'ish.

I don't know if SJ is a great fit though. Probably should have been someone a little more exotic if not outright Japanese.
 
Dno69 said:
To be fair, a lot of anime females look white'ish.

I don't know if SJ is a great fit though. Probably should have been someone a little more exotic if not outright Japanese.
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Don't worry the VFX artists are making her look Asian...


*Not a joke. and how the studio thinks it won't not go over well i dunno.
 
Saw this posted from Max Landis (a Hollywood screenwriter), giving his take on the matter:


 
Not that I'm agreeing with the casting (huge fan of GITS) but in the original anime (not the series) they did have her cast as a dark haired, blue-eyed cyborg:
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Facially in that original version she looks more like a Caucasian woman than an Asian woman.

That being said, Motoko Kusanagi is a distinctly Japanese name and in the same vein I don't think they would have had much trouble finding an Asian woman to play her. I think this is just the case of 'Everybody knows Scarlet Johanson so we should cast her to bring in movie goers' type of thing.
They could have cast someone better for the role, but they also could have cast someone much worse.

I want to know who they got to play Batou.
 
Or maybe test the waters first with less risky Animes that require expensive Sci-Fi FX. Perhaps HELLSING. I think most of the characters in that show are European anyway and I think if this was marketed well it could attract an enthusiastic Horror audience. Just have Alucard deliver violent kills sort of like Deadpool with a darker tone. Deadpool should be a major indicator that there is an audience for R-Rated Anti-Hero movies.

I think people even went to see Dracula Untold, so I think a vampire killfest is a safe bet. Actually, I think even yet another Underworld sequel is being filmed.



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Hellsing is base on Victorian England, so an English looking cast will be more convincing.
 
pravus said:
Saw this posted from Max Landis (a Hollywood screenwriter), giving his take on the matter:


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Off topic, but this guy is trying really hard to tell everyone he is gay. That rainbow colored hair is so
ridiculous.

My friend said Mila seems a better chose, & I have to agree.
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Studios have been trying to make animes the next comic book movie craze for a while now. I don't think it'll ever take off though because those animes are a bit tricky in that they'll never be able to fully satisfy the casual audiences and knowledgeable movie goers. That said, I don't really mind ScarJo as the lead. She's a solid actor, beautiful women, and I like the way she looks to be frank. I'm far more interested in how they portray the storyline than anything else.
 
I don't get the fuss. Japanese cinema has been stealing stories from Hollywood for years.

They stole The Ring, The Grudge, One missed call, Seven Samurai, heck, even Godzilla.

And I hate Scar-Jo. Wipe her red lipstick off, get her to cover her tits for once in her life, and she looks like a British man. And she broke up Ryan and Alanis.

Other than that, I don't get the "she has to be Asian" debacle... I understand that it isn't necessary for every heroine to be white, but its a Hollywood version of the film. Hasn't there already been a Japanese version? Put the subtitles on and quit your bitching!

And then while we're at it, she's meant to be a cyborg... Why do they insist on casting a human?

And what if they cast a Chinese actress instead of a Japanese lady? Or an Indian? Their Asian aren't they? Or are we only going by aesthetics? In that case, that's disgraceful!

Tilda Swinton has played roles where she has been an elderly woman, and even roles that are male... It never once effected her performance, the story, or the overall experience.

"It has to be authentic to the original source material!!!... But can you change it to English?... And here's a list of things that I want"

Sit down, and enjoy the movie. Or hate it.
 
The movie Serenity was a freaking sci-fi space movie, and it did fine on a very weak budget. Studios need to stop being lazy with their throwing money at their big actors and unnecessary cgi effects. The things they will do to avoid hiring the "minorities" for roles! How is this still a thing?? xD

 
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Yeah! Lets boycott all films that aren't racially accurate!!

...has there ever been an Arab actor that was in a movie without the rock?

Goodbye all Jesus films!
 
Kassen said:
The movie Serenity was a freaking sci-fi space movie, and it did fine on a very weak budget. Studios need to stop being lazy with their throwing money at their big actors and unnecessary cgi effects. The things they will do to avoid hiring the "minorities" for roles! How is this still a thing?? xD

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Serenity didn't really do all that well. It broke even with the budget, but that's ignoring extra costs like theater cuts and marketing.
 
As for this issue, the more I think about it, the less problem I have with it. For what it's worth, you have characters like Batou who has a ex-CIA background in his resume and Major is portrayed more as a "one-of-a-kind cyborg" in the original film than anything else. It really depends on how they execute the portrayal of the character and it's world.
 
sharkboy1200 said:
Serenity didn't really do all that well. It broke even with the budget, but that's ignoring extra costs like theater cuts and marketing.
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Yes but the point is Serenity is a decent sci-fi movie on a very low budget. You don't need to spend $80 million designing a cgi brick building. The whole costs thing is stretching. They are too wasteful with money.

But the real thing is these big studios are supposed to be a financial cushion for filmmakers to do their thing. These big studios bring-in is unbelievably high. They can take a small hit got the filmmakers' sake instead of barking dictations down to them about every little thing they can and can't do with their film. Just give filmmakers the freedom to search for and hire new non-white talent. But these big studios won't have that. They'd rather star a white no-name actor as Goku that do that.

It's even the same thing with video games. Unless you are based in Japan, your video games are mostly filled white males as main protagonists for the games because that's what publishers want. And with video games, your protagonists don't even have associations with some money-making famous faces. You don't even to pay any celebrity to play your protagonist's role. And yet the protagonists still end up being white and make. Game publishers won't even let your protagonist of your small indie game have female body parts. There is no diversity anymore because they "optimize" the perfect game formula and with their one-dimensional thinking they then carbon copy it to death in an attempt to maximize profits to the penny. It's just simple greed, and it's wrong.
 
Kassen said:
Yes but the point is Serenity is a decent sci-fi movie on a very low budget. You don't need to spend $80 million designing a cgi brick building. The whole costs thing is stretching. They are too wasteful with money.

But the real thing is these big studios are supposed to be a financial cushion for filmmakers to do their thing. These big studios bring-in is unbelievably high. They can take a small hit got the filmmakers' sake instead of barking dictations down to them about every little thing they can and can't do with their film. Just give filmmakers the freedom to search for and hire new non-white talent. But these big studios won't have that. They'd rather star a white no-name actor as Goku that do that.

It's even the same thing with video games. Unless you are based in Japan, your video games are mostly filled white males as main protagonists for the games because that's what publishers want. And with video games, your protagonists don't even have associations with some money-making famous faces. You don't even to pay any celebrity to play your protagonist's role. And yet the protagonists still end up being white and make. Game publishers won't even let your protagonist of your small indie game have female body parts. There is no diversity anymore because they "optimize" the perfect game formula and with their one-dimensional thinking they then carbon copy it to death in an attempt to maximize profits to the penny. It's just simple greed, and it's wrong.
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The point of investing that money is to make double to triple of what you invest. Movie companies are looking for mostly big hitters these days, thus the larger investments. Most movies under $50 million typically don't bring in large profits as movies with an obviously large budget. The ones that do are considered the exception to the rule. Not to mention, these movies are typically paying a large group of people, on and off the screen, union level pay. Big projects like this will add up quick, and GitS is not the kind of material that can just be cheaply adapted to live action without it showing. Big studios are there to make money. Not for any other reason. If a director is popular and has a proven track record, he/she gets more creative freedom. Unfortunately, the talent behind the camera leaves a little to be desired and seem more there to simply please all the money men involved. To top it all off, GitS is a very risky investment for a big hollywood production. Anime films are something of a paradox because you HAVE to appeal to a general audience while attempting to cater to GitS fans. This movie is being made with a Western audience in mind first, not to please a niche fanbase. I doubt it'll succeed either way in all honesty. Anime has sort of gone through it's hey day of being in the spotlight since the 90s and early 2000s. Never really gaining any real consistent mainstream traction in the west. This movie will have to be incredible for it to be successful. True to the source or not.

The other problem is that there's a very low amount of leading Asian actresses that won't be solved anytime. Lucy Liu and Sandra Oh are the first two that come to mind, and I can't even think of a Japanese actress. The black and latino communities developed stars because they sort of have their own unique industry within the industry when it comes to TV and film in American media. The asian representation is nowhere near to those levels and the films made in China and Japan are considered very niche, really appealing to only that part of the world. The silver lining here is that China is becoming a hotter market, so hopefully that means bigger and better roles for asian actors in big budget movies, but of course, that means more of a Chinese focus in casting and storytelling than anything else. I just don't see Japanese actors getting the same love unless they have some sort of mainstream appeal. Ken Watanabe and George Takei are probably the biggest Japanese names known to general audiences.

As for videogames, that's an even more niche industry in comparison. Besides a chosen few, there really aren't any big hitters within the game industry that isn't propped up by it's much bigger price tag. Games HAVE to make a profit at $60 unless they're a low budget affair. The smaller that price tag gets, the less profit is made, and the less likely the budget will be able to even break even.
 
sharkboy1200 said:
The point of investing that money is to make double to triple of what you invest. Movie companies are looking for mostly big hitters these days, thus the larger investments. Most movies under $50 million typically don't bring in large profits as movies with an obviously large budget. The ones that do are considered the exception to the rule. Not to mention, these movies are typically paying a large group of people, on and off the screen, union level pay. Big projects like this will add up quick, and GitS is not the kind of material that can just be cheaply adapted to live action without it showing. Big studios are there to make money. Not for any other reason. If a director is popular and has a proven track record, he/she gets more creative freedom. Unfortunately, the talent behind the camera leaves a little to be desired and seem more there to simply please all the money men involved. To top it all off, GitS is a very risky investment for a big hollywood production. Anime films are something of a paradox because you HAVE to appeal to a general audience while attempting to cater to GitS fans. This movie is being made with a Western audience in mind first, not to please a niche fanbase. I doubt it'll succeed either way in all honesty. Anime has sort of gone through it's hey day of being in the spotlight since the 90s and early 2000s. Never really gaining any real consistent mainstream traction in the west. This movie will have to be incredible for it to be successful. True to the source or not.

The other problem is that there's a very low amount of leading Asian actresses that won't be solved anytime. Lucy Liu and Sandra Oh are the first two that come to mind, and I can't even think of a Japanese actress. The black and latino communities developed stars because they sort of have their own unique industry within the industry when it comes to TV and film in American media. The asian representation is nowhere near to those levels and the films made in China and Japan are considered very niche, really appealing to only that part of the world. The silver lining here is that China is becoming a hotter market, so hopefully that means bigger and better roles for asian actors in big budget movies, but of course, that means more of a Chinese focus in casting and storytelling than anything else. I just don't see Japanese actors getting the same love unless they have some sort of mainstream appeal. Ken Watanabe and George Takei are probably the biggest Japanese names known to general audiences.

As for videogames, that's an even more niche industry in comparison. Besides a chosen few, there really aren't any big hitters within the game industry that isn't propped up by it's much bigger price tag. Games HAVE to make a profit at $60 unless they're a low budget affair. The smaller that price tag gets, the less profit is made, and the less likely the budget will be able to even break even.
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There is no excuse for these big studios. If it was all about using big-name celebrities to boost sales, then how is casting all no-name white actors for the main roles for movies like DBZ Evolution and the movie "21" accomplishing that? And with video games, how does choosing a white male as the protagonist boost sales? The answer is it doesn't; the 1%er who control these big industries simply want white male America to stay white and stay male.
 
This seems like a genre that should be nurtured more first like the comic book films or before picking high budget high-risk Sci-Fi stories.

I think if people would go for Final Destination, they would go for Death Note which I don't think really needs a massive budget and is a story that could take place in America. Studios should try stories like this before going after high risk productions.
 
Kassen said:
There is no excuse for these big studios. If it was all about using big-name celebrities to boost sales, then how is casting all no-name white actors for the main roles for movies like DBZ Evolution and the movie "21" accomplishing that? And with video games, how does choosing a white male as the protagonist boost sales? The answer is it doesn't; the 1%er who control these big industries simply want white male America to stay white and stay male.
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DBZ Evolution had a myriad of problems, the least of which was casting, but it broke even in international box offices making $57 million, a domestic bust though. Also, 21 was a success. It made $137 million worldwide on a budget of $35 million. The movie also had star actors in it. Even Jeff Ma admitted that the controversy around 21's casting decision was overblown. Hell, a more recent example was Gods of Egypt casting white actors in the fantasy film. It didn't break even on it's budget ($140 million), but the story goes around that several international studios, including Lionsgate, split the budget up. Lionsgate, through some clever financial voodoo actually only had to make $10 million domestically to break even and made about $30 million.

Not saying that I don't think it's a problem that shouldn't be solved, but the problem wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't as successful and Hollywood is only interested in what makes them money at the end. If it becomes unprofitable for several studios, you'll see a shift in tone.
 
sharkboy1200 said:
DBZ Evolution had a myriad of problems, the least of which was casting, but it broke even in international box offices making $57 million, a domestic bust though. Also, 21 was a success. It made $137 million worldwide on a budget of $35 million. The movie also had star actors in it. Even Jeff Ma admitted that the controversy around 21's casting decision was overblown. Hell, a more recent example was Gods of Egypt casting white actors in the fantasy film. It didn't break even on it's budget ($140 million), but the story goes around that several international studios, including Lionsgate, split the budget up. Lionsgate, through some clever financial voodoo actually only had to make $10 million domestically to break even and made about $30 million.

Not saying that I don't think it's a problem that shouldn't be solved, but the problem wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't as successful and Hollywood is only interested in what makes them money at the end. If it becomes unprofitable for several studios, you'll see a shift in tone.
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There were no star actors in 21. The closest thing to a star in the movie 21 has was Kevin Spacey whose last relevant film was in the ancient 1990's. And there is no excuse for Gods of Egypt either. Only two or three of those actors are slightly well-known, and that should have no effect on the other 30 actors, including every minor role in the film.
 
Kassen said:
There were no star actors in 21. The closest thing to a star in the movie 21 has was Kevin Spacey whose last relevant film was in the ancient 1990's. And there is no excuse for Gods of Egypt either. Only two or three of those actors are slightly well-known, and that should have no effect on the other 30 actors, including every minor role in the film.
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Oh geez, you and I are just gonna have to agree to disagree at this point Kassen.
 
sharkboy1200 said:
Oh geez, you and I are just gonna have to agree to disagree at this point Kassen.
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You sound like I'm not providing a valid challenge. If Gods of Egypt just needed white people for their main roles to sell tickets, then why are all of the minor roles also all white? You say the movie 21 had a white man playing a major role, but Kevin Spacey's last relevant movie was American Beauty in '99 with all of the students being 100% white cast.
 
Kassen said:
You sound like I'm not providing a valid challenge. If Gods of Egypt just needed white people for their main roles to sell tickets, then why are all of the minor roles also all white? You say the movie 21 had a white man playing a major role, but Kevin Spacey's last relevant movie was American Beauty in '99 with all of the students being 100% white cast.
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Kevin Spacey was Lex Luthor just two years before 21, never mind the fact that the film still had a diverse cast. He's been starring in a successful drama that has won awards and is considered Netflix's star show. Hell, he's been nominated for multiple awards since 1999. If you bothered to do any research, you'd see that. Spacey has just about managed to maintain his relevancy in Hollywood in the same capacity ever since American Beauty. As for Gods of Egypt, I'm sure if you bothered to research the actual film, you'd see the entire cast wasn't even 100% white. Lots of your argument is complete generalizations refusing to look at the numbers. Money is the reason why it happens. Money is what's gonna change it. Hollywood isn't trying to hold down the 99%, they want to make money to make more movies. They'll go in almost any direction they believe will land them the most profit. It's as simple as that.
 
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