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American Live Action 'Ghost in the Shell' Anime to Star Scarlett Johansson?

Mega-cult favorite anime Ghost in the Shell will be coming to life in the form of live action movie that appears to be headed by blonde bombshell Scarlett Johansson, according to Forbes.com. As it stands right now, DreamWorks and Paramount will co-finance the project. In this arrangement, Paramount will handle the international distribution and DreamWorks will handle the US distribution via a previous deal with Disney.

Filling out the creative team are Rupert Sanders, who will direct, and William Wheeler, who will handle script duty. Curent speculation is filming will began sometime next year. While Scarlett Johansson is aboard, the rest of the cast has yet to be finalized.

Filmmakers envision March 31, 2017 as the potential release date for the film.

There has been a growing under current of discontent as fans feel that such a beloved property is again being whitewashed by Hollywood and little justice will be done.

Already, there is an online petition calling for Johansson's dismissal.

"The original film is set in Japan, and the major cast members are Japanese," reads the petition. "So why would the American remake star a white actress? The industry is already unfriendly to Asian actors without roles in major films being changed to exclude them.

Johansson will play the iconic role of Major Motoko Kusnagi, a cyborg detective. For her part, Johansson is very capable of handling the role both from an acting perspective and action one as well, her recent film Lucy is proof of that. The criticisms and calls for Johansson's dismissal, while understandable, misses a valid point in that manga artists largely anglicize their character. While the characters maintain cultural customs inherent to Japan, they, by and large, aren't Asian in derivation.

What do you think? Will Scarlett Johansson do good as Kusnagi. Leave a comment. We'd like to know what you think.

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