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Ghost In The Shell Set Reports: How the anime and manga influenced the movie

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Simo

Simo

Member
Collider, IGN etc are in the middle of posting their set reports from when they visited the filming of the live action Ghost In The Shell move in New Zealand earlier this year. Collider has a great write up with a ton of info so I definitely recommend giving it a full read:
http://collider.com/ghost-in-the-sh...utm_campaign=collidersocial&utm_medium=social

On what stories, if any, from the anime or manga they're adapting:
“We’re not doing Puppetmaster. It’s not Laughing Man. It involves Kuze. The Kuze story. The big thing we are doing here is that we’re not necessarily doing an origins backstory, but we are addressing her sense of self and resolving how she defines herself in terms of memories. That’s one of the main thrusts in the story. Inspired by that episode of Affection in Second Gig. It’s bits and pieces of those mixed together.”
Click to expand...

“There are outside villains but they are never the most interesting parts of a movie, especially your first movie. I find that part of the reason we didn’t do Puppetmaster in this movie was we didn’t really feel like we had time to tell that story, and in your first movie the way the characters feel about themselves and the relationship with those people that they care about is usually more than enough story for a movie to handle. So there are villains and they do drive a lot of the story, but they are really there to antagonize her spiritually.

The villains in the story are people that are abusing this brave new world. The movie certainly addresses this whole idea of in the future, if you think about everybody’s biggest fear around technology is about getting your identity stolen (which is really just your credit record) as apposed someone hacking your brain could happen here. The more technology gets inside of you and the more it’s woven into your life the more that people can abuse it. So there are characters, both at a criminal level and a governmental level, who are abusing technology and doing scary things.

Ghost hacking is a big storyline in the movie and in some ways we take it even further. This idea of if someone could change your memories, what would that do to your sense of self? After you meet that garbageman and you see him in the interrogation room. You’re like ‘that guy’s gone’. You could have a really interesting movie about that guy trying to put his life back together. Being told you don’t have a wife and kids that you thought you did is a big hole.
Click to expand...

Dealing with Nudity and the Major's Thermoptic suit and camouflage:
“Rupert wanted to keep it sexy. That’s one of the tricky things about doing futuristic material is the future can get cold really fast. What’s interesting about Ghost in the Shell that all started with the manga was that it’s actually got more relevant in 20 years. The sexuality was something we wanted keep forward. While this (pointing at The Major) is skin tone colour, she’s not actually naked. This is a whole suit she’s wearing. The thermoptic. We’re not actually trying to pretend she’s naked. Some of the stuff she wears in the anime and the manga, when you make a movie things become much more literal. If you’re in a world with someone walking around in a thong, we’re not in a world where that was going to feel natural. So we didn’t do it. But in cases when you’re being born… that’s why they call it the birthday suit.

We wanted to be honest to our movie. We’re trying to stick and keep honest to our world. So if someone is going to be naked in the dance club, they’re going to be naked. I don’t know if we’re going to have that kind of nudity in the dancers because, does it make sense for the movie? Scarlett is a brave partner in that regard. We’re not going to see her naked, but we’re also not fleeing from that element. The suit emulates some of the ideas of the panel lines. When you see it the movie you’re not meant to think that that she’s naked. In the anime, when she’s naked, she looks like a person so when you see her bare skin in the movie, with the exception of a few moments when she’s damaged, she looks like a person. If you put her in a body that looks really inhuman that only emotionally isolates her further and that doesn’t feel like the design rules for Ghost in the Shell or for this movie.

We weren’t going to have Scarlett or The Major character running around naked in the action scene for a million reasons. It would be strange. It was also cool as there is a vulnerability wearing something like [the thermoptic suit]. You’re still going to feel relatively vulnerable.”
Click to expand...

WETA on the suit and shelling sequence:
“So we’ve done a huge amount of the shelling sequence practically. Things like Scarlett’s thermoptic suit, which may be in another filmmaker’s film category would have immediately fallen under a digital effect, tracking Scarlett’s face on using a digital character or using digital doubles, has been an extraordinary physical effects suit, very challenging effects suit. Probably the first time a full-silicon suit has been built for an actress. Requiring us to take digital scans of Scarlett, manufacture cores of greatly reduced circumferences to her so we can cinch her into this body-hugging skin that almost looks like she’s in the nude, an almost nude cyborg because she goes thermoptic and turns invisible in the movie. So she had to go through this transitional period where she’s dropped her clothes away revealing this android-like suit, so that’s been great fun building. And lots and lots of other stuff. So that’s a nutshell of what we’ve been doing.”
Click to expand...

“We definitely couldn’t have made the movie a year ago in some parts of it. Well, we couldn’t have made the movie a year ago in the way we made it today. And it would have been a lesser visual at a physical effects workshop level than if we had made it a year ago. And I would even argue that maybe the window was as tight as six months. A good example is that the material that we made the shelling sequence skeleton out of, which is a product called VeraClear that you put through a specific type of 3D printer that we just happened to own, wasn’t invented last year. So the ability to actually utilize the material to the degree that we have, and hack the machines so we can use it in the way we want to use it, would have limited our ability to do what we’ve done.”
Click to expand...

Other tidbits:
  • The film's cinematographer watched both anime movies and picked out 28 key colors. Those 28 colors were then programmed in to the LED lighting board for lighting the sets so they could mimic the palette of the anime.
  • Film could be R or PG-13. They never set out to make either cut and will deal with the MPAA when it comes to it.
  • There's a major sequence with the Major fighting the spider tank while wearing the Thermoptic suit just like the first anime film.
  • The production partnered with Adidas to make Section 9's combat boots. The idea is that they might make a limited production run of them for retail.
  • Nothing has been decided or concrete details for the score yet.

IGN's report:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/11...me-and-manga-influenced-the-live-action-movie
 
A

Alex_Mexico

Member
I'd be amazed if they have the guts to make the movie an R.

My favorite storyline from any of the films and anime series was easily Stand Alone Complex' 2nd Gig (Individual Eleven and Kuze) so I'm stoked to learn this is what they're going to adapt.

And of course Scarlett wasn't going to get naked. Hell, not even Motoko got naked during SAC either.
 
C

CosmicGroinPull

Member
So she had to go through this transitional period where she’s dropped her clothes away revealing this android-like suit, so that’s been great fun building
Click to expand...

Oh I'm sure it was.


Also, looks like the producers are aware of one of the main selling points of Ghost In The Shell...... :D
 
U

Uzzy

Member
Please be good. This interview gives me a bit more hope that they get some of it, so.. please be good.
 
S

Shaanyboi

Banned
I just can't picture them realistically making a straight cyberpunk detective/spec ops movie like the original or SAC as opposed to just another generic futuristic sci-fi action-fest like the Total Recall remake or some shit. People in some high octane car chase, then someone leaps onto another car, which goes flying off the edge of a highway as they land on some fucking airship, etc.

I would love to be wrong.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
i'm hella skeptical this will be any good with the talent involved on the writing and directing but they're definitely saying all the right things here.

waiting on that trailer.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
I'd love to be proven wrong, but I can't see this being as arthouse as fuck as the original film is (just like its influence Blade Runner). Lots of silence, atmosphere, taiko drums, gorgeous cinematography. Especially given the director.
 
B

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
The tidbit about the color profiles gives me hope that, at least visually, they're going to trail and nail the look.
 
Z

Zakalwe

Banned
I mean, while the final product will inevitably irritate hardcore fans somehow, I can't help but feel optimistic after reading this.

It's rare you read about a production taking so much care, even rarer that they go out of their way to tell you about how much care their taking.

Of course, it could all be part of the ploy to get our butts in seats for day one, but it could also mean this will be a decent film that respects the source material a great deal.

Hoping for the latter, of course.
 
F

Forkball

Member
Messofanego said:
I'd love to be proven wrong, but I can't see this being as arthouse as fuck as the original film is (just like its influence Blade Runner). Lots of silence, atmosphere, taiko drums, gorgeous cinematography. Especially given the director.
Click to expand...

It will be an action film with some robophilosophy mumbo jumbo. I'm not a huge fan of the GitS movie but I understand why people enjoy it. This is definitely going in a different direction, but I think it will touch on some similar themes as the original movie.
 
S

Sgt. Kabukiman

Banned
I'v been shitting on this movie for a while but all this info sounds pretty reassuring. I'm surprised they might consider an R rating. I hope that's not just bullshit to appease the fans. And their approach to the nudity seems interesting, I'm surprised they even acknowledged it. I certainly don't want the Major in a bathing suit like in SAC but it's still an important part of GitS and it's more than just fan-service (at least in the Oshii films, Shirow is definitely a perv).

Still, the director of Snow White... Oh well, fingers crossed, Johansson has a solid track record.
 
Y

Yoshi88

Member
Simo said:
The film's cinematographer watched both anime movies and picked out 28 key colors. Those 28 colors were then programmed in to the LED lighting board for lighting the sets so they could mimic the palette of the anime.
Click to expand...

Huh, i really like this approach to translating the visual style across different media. Anything similar done before in movies?
 
D

duckroll

Member
Messofanego said:
I'd love to be proven wrong, but I can't see this being as arthouse as fuck as the original film is (just like its influence Blade Runner). Lots of silence, atmosphere, taiko drums, gorgeous cinematography. Especially given the director.
Click to expand...

But why would anyone expect it to be? It's even based on GitS:SAC 2nd Gig's storyline. They're obviously going for the more mainstream cyberpunk action style that GitS is known for today. Arise was filled with action and bland direction, so the movie will probably be in good company as far as current standards go for the franchise.
 
B

Busty

Banned
Discotheque said:
i'm hella skeptical this will be any good with the talent involved on the writing and directing but they're definitely saying all the right things here.

waiting on that trailer.
Click to expand...

Similarly I have little confidence in this but the little snippets we saw a few months ago at least show some interesting and weird stuff from a visual point of view and for that reason alone I'm going to check it out.
 
U

ubique

Member
Messofanego said:
I'd love to be proven wrong, but I can't see this being as arthouse as fuck as the original film is (just like its influence Blade Runner). Lots of silence, atmosphere, taiko drums, gorgeous cinematography. Especially given the director.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't be surprised if they slap in an atmospheric Oshii scene like the one you linked to, but only as a reference, not to communicate the movie's themes with symbolic imagery and stuff
 
Spuck-uk

Spuck-uk

Banned
The first two films are definitely more the directors than the original writers anyway. The manga runs a lot closer to SAC in tone and appearance.

I actually prefer Mamoru Oshii s take on the Major
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
Well this sounds pretty promising. I'm fine with what they're doing with the stealth suit. The Kuze plot is a surprising choice but one I'm glad to see adapted. We'll see how much of it they actually take though. Stuff like the group suicide and Goda getting shot to shit are really memorable scenes that I could see them overlooking or mucking up because they're too graphic.

I really doubt they'll go for a R cut, this is a tentpole blockbuster still. That's probably just talk to garner good will. It's nice to dream though.

A bit worried they're focusing too much on the Major at the cost of the other characters considering that is all they're talking about right now.
 
A

Arklite

Member
Aesthetics and prop design are sounding great. Scarlett Johansson talking about her character makes it sound like she'll be portrayed awkwardly, though.
 
N

n00bsauce87

Member
Film could be R or PG-13. They never set out to make either cut and will deal with the MPAA when it comes to it.
Click to expand...

I really like this. Just make the movie the best you can instead of purposely making an R rated movie from the jump and trying to pigeonhole everything you can that makes an R rated movie R rated.

My stance has soften a little bit. Maybe Hollywood can get this one right. This Japanese Anime adaptation. Here's to hoping.
 
N

NH Apache

Banned
Kuze storyline...Hopefully we'll get those winter camp flashbacks.

The series ended pretty awesomely for this storyline so here's hoping.
 
JimiNutz

JimiNutz

Banned
Until I see footage this is just PR.
Saying the right things doesn't prove that you can deliver. At least it's promising to hear though.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
duckroll said:
But why would anyone expect it to be? It's even based on GitS:SAC 2nd Gig's storyline. They're obviously going for the more mainstream cyberpunk action style that GitS is known for today. Arise was filled with action and bland direction, so the movie will probably be in good company as far as current standards go for the franchise.
Click to expand...
I didn't even bother with Arise :p
 
N

Ninjimbo

Member
They never talk about the tv show. That should be the reference especially if they're going to be doing the Kuze storyline. The interviews sound nice, but everybody goes into these productions wanting to make the best film they can possibly make.

I'm not going to go watch this movie just to watch GitS adapted on the big screen. I'll go watch it if it looks great and to know that I'll have to wait for a finished product. My expectations are still entrenched on this being mediocre.
 
S

Soldiussnaku

Member
Even with this info I'm still very very sceptical of the film not only being talked about in the same breath and reverence of the Gits franchise, but also a good film in it's own right.

Will wait for reviews before I put cash down on this film.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
The only influence that they didn't carry over from the Manga/Anime appears to be a Japanese/Asian cast.
 
T

TheJollyCorner

Member
I could honestly see this turning into a DREDD type situation; completely shit on upon reveal, yet turns out to be a great flick.

I'm rooting for it!
 
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