Variety is reporting that actress Scarlett Johansson has officially signed on to play the lead role in the forthcoming live-action adaptation of author Shirow Masumane’s highly acclaimed 1989 cyberpunk manga, Ghost In The Shell, from Dreamworks. Johansson was in talks as recently as last October after The Wolf Of Wall Street and Suicide Squad co-star Margot Robbie left.
Based on a script by William Wheeler, Johansson will play a semi-human cybernetically enhanced counter terrorist in a future world where society’s fixation on technological advancements have made it possible for most people to hack their way into virtually anything, anywhere, opening doors to all sorts of intrigue and corruption on a massive scale.
It’s almost a certainty that any and all development on this particular project will find a way to take the narrative and adjust it accordingly to reach an English-speaking audience while hopefully lending itself to all the right elements that made Ghost In The Shell such a memorable cult hit for its time as both a graphic novel and an animated feature film six years later. But then again, who knows? To some, it feels like another mild blow for fans of Asian properties with hopes largely ignored for of a Hollywood-produced live-action manga or anime ever seeing the light of day with an Asian lead. But then again, Luc Besson’s Lucy made bank last year…sooo, yeah. Money.
Nevertheless, we’ve had our share of surprises with other titles, so we’re bound to find out where this one goes. Rupert Sanders is directing the film, and hopefully he knows what he’s doing.
Johansson gets more screentime this summer in Marvel’s Avengers: Age Of Ultron this May.