Arad's involvement in this doesn't really worry me -that- much. Looking at his projects and scraping out and discarding all the sequels that were the result of the studios saying "Huh, people liked this. Produce more movies so we can keep the rights!", this is the guy who produced Blade, X-Men, Spider-Man, The Punisher, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and The Amazing Spider-Man; all of these did fairly well with the general movie-going public. Sure, he had a few turds -- Daredevil (which I personally don't think was -that- bad) Hulk, Fantastic Four (which is now a bright shiny gem when you compare it to the reboot), and Ghost Rider -- but the comic book movies are difficult to do anyways. He was also involved with several of the classic 90's Marvel cartoons. Which, regardless of what you might think now, if you saw these as a kid you can't deny that you loved them. They're like Power Rangers or Pokemon; you made fun of them in the light, but watched them religiously when no-one was around to catch you.
That being said, though... Ghost in the Shell is not Marvel. But I'll still trust this guy more than I'd trust M. Night Shyamalyan to do it.
I don't know about others here, but my initial experience with the original Ghost in the Shell movie was me walking away thinking "... What the HELL did I just waste my time on?", only to be hit with a weird urge a week or so later to steal the video cassette from my brother and watch it again. In the end, I think it took me five viewings before I could appreciate what I was watching, and then I was hooked. And for everyone I've introduced to GitS since, I tell them to watch the movie, walk away for a week, and then return to it. Rinse and repeat a few times -- when you're brand-new to the series, you need time to digest and process what's going on in the non-action scenes to appreciate it. But this is going to be a Hollywood movie, which means they have 90-120 minutes to get the general public to love the franchise or else they consider it a flop. Which means it's going to be flashy, action-oriented, and not as deep as those of us who are long-time fans of the source material want it to be.
On the plus side, it seems (and if this is correct) that the writer was an Oscar nominee for Best Writing for an Original Screenplay this past year. So, maybe there's some hope on the writing side.
Anyways.
I'm not too worried about Scarlett Johansson getting Motoko's part. She's been doing enough action movies that I think she'll be able to pull off that part well enough. At the -very- least, they could've chosen a whole lot worse for the role.
Who I AM worried about is the guy they casted for Batou. The only other movie that I've seen him in is "Lucy", and looking back at that I really don't think he's Batou material. At all. Appearance, voice... I'm super worried. Batou is my favorite, and a bad Batou is likely to kill any potential "GitS Cinematic Universe" appreciation I could have faster than bad writing/directing could.
That being said, though... Ghost in the Shell is not Marvel. But I'll still trust this guy more than I'd trust M. Night Shyamalyan to do it.
I don't know about others here, but my initial experience with the original Ghost in the Shell movie was me walking away thinking "... What the HELL did I just waste my time on?", only to be hit with a weird urge a week or so later to steal the video cassette from my brother and watch it again. In the end, I think it took me five viewings before I could appreciate what I was watching, and then I was hooked. And for everyone I've introduced to GitS since, I tell them to watch the movie, walk away for a week, and then return to it. Rinse and repeat a few times -- when you're brand-new to the series, you need time to digest and process what's going on in the non-action scenes to appreciate it. But this is going to be a Hollywood movie, which means they have 90-120 minutes to get the general public to love the franchise or else they consider it a flop. Which means it's going to be flashy, action-oriented, and not as deep as those of us who are long-time fans of the source material want it to be.
On the plus side, it seems (and if this is correct) that the writer was an Oscar nominee for Best Writing for an Original Screenplay this past year. So, maybe there's some hope on the writing side.
Anyways.
I'm not too worried about Scarlett Johansson getting Motoko's part. She's been doing enough action movies that I think she'll be able to pull off that part well enough. At the -very- least, they could've chosen a whole lot worse for the role.
Who I AM worried about is the guy they casted for Batou. The only other movie that I've seen him in is "Lucy", and looking back at that I really don't think he's Batou material. At all. Appearance, voice... I'm super worried. Batou is my favorite, and a bad Batou is likely to kill any potential "GitS Cinematic Universe" appreciation I could have faster than bad writing/directing could.
