formasymphonic
Member
So yeh, the movie is out at the end of the month but Amazon shipped me the art book today.
If you've seen any of my comments in other GitS movie threads, you'll note that I'm actually really wary of how the film is going to turn out, as well as several other issues. But I collect art books as i enjoy seeing the work that goes into stuff, so i picked this up.
Anyway that is enough rambling — from this point on there will be unmarked spoilers and if you want to avoid it then back out of the thread now.
*Additionally pls don't ask me to post scans, as 1) I don't really want to and 2) GAF rules frown on it*
lol @ this quote from the book's intro
This is all random stuff taken from/confirmed by the book:
PLOT STUFF
— The Major is indeed known as Mira Killian in the film
— They are indeed using Kuze in the film, but as a kind of hybrid of the Puppetmaster, Laughing Man & Kuze in one character... and only really serves as antagonist for first half of the film. Second half is Section 6/Hanka/tank battle.
— There is a diagram that quickly sums up Sanders' initial plan for the Major's arc.
I won't try to recreate it here, but basically unless they have deviated, then the arbook confirms what i said here:
BEHIND THE SCENES STUFF
— WETA Works worked on a lot of the design, props and practical effects. There's a lot of excellent work they've done here.
— Avi Arad already feels the is enough content to mine for sequels. He went after the GitS IP rights after he "parted ways with Marvel". It took 3 years of initial planning to work a deal with Kodansha, and another year just to get the contracts done.
— Steven Spielberg's Amblin company was involved in overseeing the project and early script stuff at one point.
— Sanders didn't like the script he was initially shown by Spielberg (it was apparently "very different from the original"), so ended up digging through SAC and appropriating parts that he thought he could use to make it more GitS-esque. This led to him allegedly creating his own 100 page graphic novel to mock up which story beats he wanted to use.
— Then this got handed over to screenwriters and they dug through more of the material (Innocence is specifically mentioned hereso make of that what you will), to flesh out the movie...
— For the shelling scene WETA needed to build a ScarJo body that would look anatomically correct. They built it in layers and it took them 5 months, and has an internal skeleton of over 1400 parts. They were unable to get the black bones to show up in the hands on film, and solved it through creating new special transparent bones that were hollow - and filling the hollow por5ions with black paint.
— I'm not gonna comment on this, just gonna quote this verbatim:
...there's a lot more and i might add some extra later. still skimming through right now.
If you've seen any of my comments in other GitS movie threads, you'll note that I'm actually really wary of how the film is going to turn out, as well as several other issues. But I collect art books as i enjoy seeing the work that goes into stuff, so i picked this up.
Anyway that is enough rambling — from this point on there will be unmarked spoilers and if you want to avoid it then back out of the thread now.
*Additionally pls don't ask me to post scans, as 1) I don't really want to and 2) GAF rules frown on it*
lol @ this quote from the book's intro
Over the years several filmmakers have attempted to adapt the saga into a live-action film, but none of the projects ultimately came into fruition. That is, until 2015, when a team led by producers Avi and Ari Avad (the father-son team team behind Iron Man) and director Rupert Sanders finally got a live action version of the story off the ground. Sanders, who'd had a smash hit with his first film, Snow White and the Huntsman, had shown he was both a superior visual stylist and able to deliver a thrilling film driven by a dynamic and multidimensional female character.
If Sanders had the right stuff for a live-action reimagining of the story, there was also an actress with an incredible filmography that made her a perfect fit for the role of lead character Major Killian: Scarlett Johansson. As Black Widow in the Marvel cinematic universe, she'd shone as an action heroine; as Lucy in Luc Besson's sci-fi action film of the same name, she'd excelled as a vulnerable yet potentially deadly woman evolving into something beyond human; and as an artificial intelligence in Her, she'd ben charming, enchanting, and yet ultimately nonhuman, and therefore unattainable. Johansson had the allure, the intensity, the charisma, and the acting skills to bring the Major to life.
"There's very few Scarlett Johanssons," says Sanders with a smiile. "Globally, there's very few actresses who have that kind of edge to them. She's got a very cyberpunk edge to her. She's tough... She showed she could be an action movie star. It's hard to be a movie star and it' very hard to be an action movie star. And she had all of those facets. That to me was the Major."
This is all random stuff taken from/confirmed by the book:
PLOT STUFF
— The Major is indeed known as Mira Killian in the film
— They are indeed using Kuze in the film, but as a kind of hybrid of the Puppetmaster, Laughing Man & Kuze in one character... and only really serves as antagonist for first half of the film. Second half is Section 6/Hanka/tank battle.
— There is a diagram that quickly sums up Sanders' initial plan for the Major's arc.
I won't try to recreate it here, but basically unless they have deviated, then the arbook confirms what i said here:
all the current marketing has implied that this is going to be a "who am I" story.
I'm not going to dive into whether thats what GitS is at its coreBut the current speculation is that ScarJo is "Mira Killian" now and will... 'discover' that she was once actually Motoko Kusanagi., (for me its not).
If so there is probably someone somewhere patting themselves on the back for coming up with that and thinking that they've come up with a great plot-twist and are actually somehow honouring the source material by doing this.
...Meanwhile what they are actually doing is salting what was a whitewashed casting wound as it is.
BEHIND THE SCENES STUFF
— WETA Works worked on a lot of the design, props and practical effects. There's a lot of excellent work they've done here.
— Avi Arad already feels the is enough content to mine for sequels. He went after the GitS IP rights after he "parted ways with Marvel". It took 3 years of initial planning to work a deal with Kodansha, and another year just to get the contracts done.
— Steven Spielberg's Amblin company was involved in overseeing the project and early script stuff at one point.
— Sanders didn't like the script he was initially shown by Spielberg (it was apparently "very different from the original"), so ended up digging through SAC and appropriating parts that he thought he could use to make it more GitS-esque. This led to him allegedly creating his own 100 page graphic novel to mock up which story beats he wanted to use.
— Then this got handed over to screenwriters and they dug through more of the material (Innocence is specifically mentioned here
— For the shelling scene WETA needed to build a ScarJo body that would look anatomically correct. They built it in layers and it took them 5 months, and has an internal skeleton of over 1400 parts. They were unable to get the black bones to show up in the hands on film, and solved it through creating new special transparent bones that were hollow - and filling the hollow por5ions with black paint.
— I'm not gonna comment on this, just gonna quote this verbatim:
— That said they have no qualms with continuing to use the east-asian futuristic Hong Kong/megacity archetype and Japanese aesthetics, because the backstory is that there have been several major wars, the remains super powers are the US, UK, China & Japan, and apparently they have formed a "Great Power Faction". Now most cities are a mix of nationalities and hybridised culture mishmash.One of the most notable aspects of Ghost in the Shell's cadre of dynamic characters is the sense that they have been assembled from all over the globe, the filmmakers having put together a multicultural ensemble that gives the film its own identity, differing from the manga and anime, which have a distinctive Japanese milieu. The film still as a strong Japanese sensibility, however, through the presence of of acclaimed Japanese actors including Takeshi Kitano and Rila Fukushima
...there's a lot more and i might add some extra later. still skimming through right now.