You mean Tom Cruise?

That one video discussing this Scarlettgate made a good point that there really doesn't seem to be much of any big Hollywood female stars of Asian, let alone Japanse, heritage. There was Lucy Liu, but she is not Japanese (I was actually a bit annoyed by her playing a Japanese character in Kill Bill 2). If it is deemed enough "as long as she is Asian", then they can cast some Indian actress into the role, right?

And frankly I never liked Lucy as an actor that much, I have hard time believing Ghost in the Shell would be a better movie with something like her in it, instead of e.g. Scarlett. Isn't Lucy Liu like 70 years old by now already?

Now I am reminded of that Asian chick in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World", Ellen Wong. But then casting a minor "star" like her into a leading role is a big financial risk to the investors, and she has no Japanese heritage either I think (judging by her name mostly).

The investors have to think which brings more viewers to the cinema: a well-known and widely liked actress like Scarlett (instead of e.g. Ellen Who?), or the name "Ghost in the Shell". Somehow I feel a renowned actress is a safer bet.

When I watch movies I don't recognize on the TV, quite often the decision is based on whether it has any famous actors in it. If not, I more easily dismiss it as some cheap TV movie and look for something else instead. I know, sometimes you have to take a risk, e.g. recently I saw <span class="bold">Chronicle</span> even though at first it didn't seem too interesting, and no known actors either to make me watch it. I'm glad I did, it gave a whole new angle to all those superhero movies.

It's not so much her as it's the entire setting, GitS does take place in Japan. Unless of course they change it to America/Europe, in which case fuck this film! It would be like Mad Max in Texas.

Thanks for second-hand recommending that video, I almost didn't give the guy a chance because his presentation style is so grating. I can't think of a single Asian actor in Hollywood apart from Lucy Liu either. Their talent pool has really shrunken into a puddle, and nobody seems to know how to pick up the slack without being tokenist about it.

Western video games are also massively devoid of Asian characters, Mirror's Edge being the only real torch-bearer.

One thing I think needs to happen is to show that the bodytype is a common one.

please check my included pics from the GITS movie (1)

does not deserved to become an even more dumbed-down version of the Matrix. I also share this opinion that this is what is mostly likely what will become of this film. The central theme of the [url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/GhostInTheShell]GitS franchise is <span class="bold">What Measure Is a Non-Human?</span>, which I believe, considering this is a major Hollywood production, will be most likely forgotten if not out right ignored.

Everything else aside the original manga was set in and the first anime movie was set in [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_%281995_film%29#Design]Hong Kong, in light of this I personally think Michelle Yeoh would have been much more fitting for the role.

Im kind of getting sick of this. Hollywood runs out of ideas. And decides to lift properties from other markets. What a load of bullshit.
You take a huge risk as GiTS is one of the more recognisable franchises (wonder how much Hollywood had to pay for the opportunity to get this done). floating around and there are plenty who love the originals. Though the dubbed versions are a bit ewwwww .

Scarlett sells in the west and that's their target audience, no surprises there.

The reason the movie GitS was so good was because of that old-school style animation and painted look to the environments. GitS 2 had more CG but it was still an interesting film. What I liked about both films was how it molded traditional Japanese/Asian culture in with an advanced technological future, like how technological society was superimposed over the top of the old traditional culture (probably best shown by the parade scene: https://youtu.be/3IGTiFuDjTI), Blade Runner did the same thing, like how the technology hadn't filtered down so there's still old style decaying buildings, at the street level while the advanced skyscrapers grow into the sky.

EDIT: With regard to this film though, I have no hope that kind of "look" will be made, mostly because you need creative set design instead of just creating CG everything. They'll probably make everything look clean and shiny (like Mass Effect) and miss the point entirely of cyberpunk.

This is GITS we're talking about. All they have to do is say the Major is going undercover or whatever for a mission in X western country and had to use a different body to blend in and bam, ScarJo is automatically appropriate.

I don't trust Hollywood to make this a good movie though.

53 years old, though... I know, ageism.

What makes more logical sense for a property original set in Hong Kong or Niihama, Japan; Scarlett Johansson or Michelle Yeoh? Have you seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Tomorrow Never Dies???

WHAT?

the movie is not happening in Japan?

Ok. Scarlett i can dig. it is fully artificial body so she can look whatever she wants and in original movie she wasn't very japanese looking in the first place .

but not being set in japan is a no-no. completely unacceptable.

I don't know where it's set. But I sure would prefer if it wasn't in Japan, if they'll change the ethnicity of the characters it's better if they change the rest of the stuff around them too, else it may look out of place.

If they're going to change so many things then why are they even bothering with a so-called "adaption"? Wouldn't it be less expensive to use an original story with cyborgs & AIs set in the future and original characters instead of butchering & gutting GitS?

I don't know, they might be using the actual plot and characters from GitS, save from name and skin color, you know, the stuff that actually matters?