Ever since this official picture of Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi was released the internet seems to have blown up with people whinging and complaining about Hollywood 'white washing' a Japanese story by putting a white woman as the lead.I'm starting to find it infuriating though,HOLLYWOOD HAS NEVER GOTTEN A LIVE ACTION ADAPTION RIGHT , why do people still put so much stock in them to the point they are offended when it's not cast the way they want, or tell the story true to the source material, or even reference the source material?
Every person who says that Ghost in the Shell is being white washed all have one thing in common
-they all say Rinko Kikuchi from Pacific Rim should play the Major - why? because she's the only Asian actress who has been a lead in a big Hollywood blockbuster in the last decade? That shouldn't be the only prerequisite to playing the role (she is a great actress) but based purely on Pacific Rim, the character she played is nothing like the Major. The Major should be strong and in control in all situations, a woman who can shut up a room full of people with a look or one comment (she should be Batman), not the innocent girl who fought to be counted as an equal in a man's world. The Major dominates man's world. Based purely off performances in Pacific Rim, Idris Elba should play Motoko Kusanagi, lets hear what people's complaints are about that decision. Ok that ends my rant on that.
Back to my original thought, Hollywood has (and never will) get a live action remake right in a way that'll appease everyone. Their biggest problem is moving away from the original source material, they choose things like comics, or cartoons, or anime, which have a large following (or cult following) and choose to make a movie of it.
Great idea don't you think ..NO... as much as you'd think NO it's a horrible idea, the more money spent on a project the wider the audience Hollywood will want. If you're a fan of the original they already know you're going to see it whether you like it or not. So they start changing the things they think the general public won't understand, rather than use good storytelling to explain.
It's quicker and easier for them to make an easier character to relate to if they put that character in situations you've seen in a million other movies in your lifetime. Suddenly Goku - the little boy who grew up in the woods with his grandpa with no schooling - is having girl troubles in high school, because that's what was great about Dragonball(Z).
Green Lantern, Avatar the last Airbender, Dragonball, Transformers, Fantastic Four, all shows and comics with years of history and great storytelling all thrown away in the expectation that they could make it better, or make it more accessible to the general public. But that's the point isn't it, there is a following already and it's not just because 'bending the elements sounds cool' or 'transforming robots look awesome', it's the storytelling, the character development, the troubles and the triumphs.
Most of that gets thrown out the window when a live action is being written. They ignore (or what I find even worse cherry pick just names or part of an idea from) the great stories already written and give the reigns over to someone who a lot of the time (not always) hasn't ever seen or read the source material.
I actually read in an interview that Warner Brothers asked Geoff Johns at one point if they could make Green Lantern without the ring, and Snyder in a recent interview responded to fan criticism by saying no-one knows Superman like he does. A lot of the time direction misses the point, Green Lantern and Fantastic Four should have been sci-fi. Just because the source material is a comic book, doesn't mean it's purely another superhero movie.
This is starting to turn into a rant again, but as production photos and trailers are released we become more and more excited about a movie coming out, thenwe are resentful when the final product doesn't meet our expectations. But if we want good stories and character development there is one answer .................. go back to the source material, it's why we became fans in the first place, and a lot of the time the original continued like Legend of Korra, the Dragonball Z movies, and comics will never stop being created.
Now I'm going to go binge watch Ghost in the Shell again. All this talk of the new movie has me longing to see the series again (for about the 50th time) because it's soo good
MAT
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