GHOST IN THE SHELL To Get A Limited UK Theatrical + Steelbook Release + US Blu-Ray Release
2014 is the year that fans of manga author Ghost In The Shell get to partake in the 25th anniversary of the original manga’s release. The celebration is taking shape in one form or another, particularly in Japan where fans of the popular graphic novel get to take a gander at an entire exhibit between now and September 8 at Hanshin Department Store in Umeda, Osaka, Japan.
Set in the year 2029 and following World Wars III and IV, a Japanese-led Asian block dominates world affairs. The alliance maintains its international supremacy through its elite security force whose cybernetically enhanced operatives tackle an array of hi-tech terrorists and other threats to international security. These augmented agents can “ghost hack” (i.e., download their consciousness) via the now omnipresent internet into other machines and human/machine cross breeds. Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cybernetically augmented female agent, has been tracking a virtual entity known as the Puppet Master with her crack squad of security agents. The shape-shifting Puppet Master, a rogue creation of a rival agency of the security apparatus, has concluded that it is a life form in its own right, “born in sea of information,” and requested political asylum and true physical existence in defiance of its creators.
The live-action interpretation of the franchise from DreamWorks under helmer Rupert Sanders is still in the works. In the meantime, check out a trailer below for the re-release, and if you live in the U.K., Oshii‘s sequel, Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence is getting the same treatment one week thereafter.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!