A new movie based on the Japanese manga franchise Ghost in the Shell has been talked about for a while now, but it appears that DreamWorks is ready to give it another big go. It has been announced that Laeta Kalogridis has been hired to write the script, and that the live-action movie will be filmed entirely in 3-D with Avi Arad, Ari Arad among the producers.

Ghost in the Shell is a highly-futuristic story about a cyborg named Motoko Kusanagi who works for a Japanese Public Safety division known as Section 9. She is almost completely composed of mechanical components with only her brain remaining organic. The title is something of an allegorical reference to whether her soul (ghost) exists within her shell of a synthetic body — Motoko often even wonders if her memories are also manufactured and nothing about her is real. The character has been used in many different ways, so it’s not known if DreamWorks plans to create their own story based on the manga or if they may remake one of the pre-existing anime movies.

Kalogridis has a fair amount of experience in the world of screenwriting. He wrote Night Watch with director Timur Bekmambetov, which got Timur noticed and lead him to a job directing Wanted and producing 9. He also wrote the epic, but not-so-popular films Alexander and Pathfinder. Ghost in the Shell should be a fantastic opportunity to use his experience with visual films and go a little creatively wild, and that could result in a really fun time.

If done right, both the Akira and Ghost in the Shell live-action films could be instant science fiction classics. But if done wrong, the failures will be instantly evident, and fans of the popular animations will surely dissect every glaring blemish.

[Source: Variety]