Ghost in the Shell to be adapted as a 3D live-action film

By Tatiani Siegel – Variety.com

DreamWorks has tapped scribe Laeta Kalogridis to adapt  the Japanese manga property “Ghost in the Shell.”

DreamWorks is making the futuristic police thriller as a 3D live-action film.

Avi Arad, Ari Arad and Steven Paul of Seaside Entertainment are attached to produce and originally brought the project to DreamWorks.

Created by Masamune Shirow, “Ghost in the Shell” was first published in 1989. It went on to generate two more manga editions, three anime film adaptations and an anime TV series. The second anime film, “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence,” was released in the U.S. by DreamWorks in 2004.

Jamie Moss was the original writer hired when DreamWorks bought the property last year.

Kalogridis wrote and exec produced Martin Scorsese’s upcoming thriller “Shutter Island,” which stars Leonardo DiCaprio.

Amazon Specials!

Oshii to unleash ‘Assault Girls’

By Mark Schilling – Variety

Anime auteur Mamoru Oshii (“Ghost in the Shell,” “Innocence”) has announced his first live-action pic in eight years.

Titled “Assault Girls,” the pic stars Oscar-nominated Rinko Kikuchi (“Babel”), Meisa Kuroki and Hinako Saeki as hunters in a desert landscape in a post-apocalyptic world. Their quarry, called “sand whales,” are huge, morphing beasts.

Oshii’s last live-action feature was the 2001 sci-fi epic “Avalon.” His latest toon, the sci-fi actioner “Sky Crawlers,” was released by Warner in Japan last August, while playing at many fests abroad.

“Assault Girls” is scheduled for a Dec. 19 release through the Theater Tokyo chain.