Scarlett Johansson signs on to star in Dreamworks' 'Ghost in the Shell'

[Octo]

It's like the Akira thing, they're not making it for the existing fans. Fans would probably prefer a nice CGI film or maybe even dun dun dun a traditionally animated film (I'd actually like a feature length film in the style of the animated cutscenes from the first game) I'm never going to like Scarlet Johannson. I've never understood her appeal. She reminds me of Mark Lamarr - seriously they could be related or something.

 

[Blade]

http://screencrush.com/ghost-in-the-shell-whitewashing-scarlett-johnasson-vfx/

i guess that's one way to solve your 'non-asian actor' problem???

This smells racist on sooo many levels.

 

[Ghost X]

The fact they even considered making her appear more asian shows they've lost the plot.

 

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, that's the thing. They're not making it for the fans (the fans know the original is best), they're trying to get a mix of fans, people that heard the name of what it's based on, and maybe people looking for generic action flicks to go watch the movie. Same with e.g. the DBZ movie, or pretty much any American movie that involves non-American characters played by caucasians.

Counter-case; the Attack on Titan movie, which is all right but will probably never score that big in the US market, all things considered.

And it's not even with Japanese-originated media; The Office, The IT Crowd, and probably more British productions got remakes made for the US.

The main thing is that the people on TLS and whatnot, the type that attends nerd conventions or nerds about nerdy shit, are a small minority. They would go to a Ghost in the Shell movie with characters closer to the originals, but at best they'd only generate 5% of the revenue that this one will.

 

[ForceStealer]

lol, that's pretty funny. Normally I'm pretty "I mean, I get it, but, you know...." at cries of whitewashing for adapting anime because - let's face it, the vast majority of anime characters do not look even the slightest bit Japanese. And, especially when in a completely fantastical setting, I know diversifying Hollywood would be a good thing, but it wouldn't effect my personal enjoyment of it at all.

But in this case, not only is the character explicitly stated as being Japanese, but they knew it and cared enough to try and make her look it? That's patently ridiculous. Just get Lucy Liu or something.

Spoiler

That was a joke, to be clear.

 

[Strangelove]

the official response of 'we were just testing it out on a background actor' doesn't sound much better. like, you didn't given get an actual asian person to stand in the background

i don't think i've ever seen her in a film tbh so i don't really have expectations for her. i don't have expectations for this film. like, i'll watch it but i'm not anticipating it or anything

i get why they would go with a famous actor and there just aren't any big name japanese/asian actresses at the moment. ghost in the shell is well-known within its corners but it's no star wars or twilight that had enough of a name already to cast little known actors in leading roles. i can't say i have gone into many films specifically for one particular actor, but i guess it does mean that you will hear about it

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I'd be willing to bet that the "make them look asian" was someone thinking about VFX and coming up with a way to make their cybernetic bodies look more like they were built in Japan, and that seemed like a decent idea until someone with some sense made a comment about how racist that comes off, and then they immediately pulled the plug on all of it. (Hence all the vague, "nope" official comments and most of this information comes by way of folks talking about something that happened rather than the studio saying they were doing a thing).

As you can tell, I'm a big fan of Hanlon's Razor.

Also, as a counter-point, Beat Takeshi being cast in the film means that they are at least attempting to cater to a Japanese audience (who knows the franchise better than any other region that would be getting the film), since his star power means... basically nothing outside of there.

Either way, it's an interesting little mess of oddness going on here.





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[ForceStealer]

As you can tell, I'm a big fan of Hanlon's Razor.

Oh wow, X. I never knew there was a name for this outlook and I espouse it all the time. I frequently mention it in conversations about conspiracy theories, "I always have an easier time believing good old fashioned incompetence than malicious super-competence."

Thank you sir!

/off-topic

 

[Octo]

Basically this is what happens when you live in a world that caters for the stupid fucking sponge people. The people who won't see a film if they haven't heard of the people in it.

I mean, I'll only see a film if I've heard it was good. Thats like, my main criteria.

 

[Strangelove]

i sometimes watch films that i've heard are terrible (and just terrible, not so-bad-it's-got-some-comedy-value) because i don't value myself

if they did a japanese dub with atsuko tanaka doing the major's voice again i'd watch that

 

[X-SOLDIER]

As you can tell, I'm a big fan of Hanlon's Razor.

Oh wow, X. I never knew there was a name for this outlook and I espouse it all the time. I frequently mention it in conversations about conspiracy theories, "I always have an easier time believing good old fashioned incompetence than malicious super-competence."

Thank you sir!

/off-topic

Always glad to let someone know about this. I felt the exact same way when I first found out about it!

if they did a japanese dub with atsuko tanaka doing the major's voice again i'd watch that

Woah... I think it'd be really interesting to see a full Japanese dub of a Hollywood live action GitS film, and see how it feels. I never really thought of the Voice Actors giving life to it in the way that an anime already would, but with... IRL visuals instead.




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[ForceStealer]

Basically this is what happens when you live in a world that caters for the stupid fucking sponge people. The people who won't see a film if they haven't heard of the people in it.

My question has always been...is this even true? Or is this just something Hollywood has arbitrarily convinced itself is true?

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Domestically it is true. Internationally, less so I'd imagine. The domestic market is SO fucking dumb, and why I'm glad that the International market makes such a big impact in films now.




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[Cthulhu]

Basically this is what happens when you live in a world that caters for the stupid fucking sponge people. The people who won't see a film if they haven't heard of the people in it.

My question has always been...is this even true? Or is this just something Hollywood has arbitrarily convinced itself is true?

There's probably more factors than well-known actors (like the actual publishing / movie companies, directors, marketing budgets, contracts with cinemas), but, how many 'movie house' movies have you seen in the past year, for example?

Me, none. There's a movie house (e.g. an independent cinema that doesn't do the big hollywood movies) in town, looks very neat and sophisticated and shit, but, never went there. Tried once, but it was booked full. Supposedly though, they've got the good movies at lower budgets with lesser-known actors.

 

[Strangelove]

i'm watching stand alone complex because i never saw the whole thing before and also i want akio ohtsuka as batou

i might try picking the manga back up because i only got up to the part where there was a bunch of lesbian sex and i put it down there

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Ghost in the Shell (SAC) is one of the VERY few anime that I have never watched through subbed. I've always watched the dub because 1) it is very good. 2) there is SO much happening with subtle verbal and visual cues that I've watched through the entire series at least 4 times and have always noticed new things every time that I'd missed before.

Miscellaneous SAC Fact: If Togusa is looking at himself in a mirror, he is moments away from uncovering a clue that is blocking whatever he is currently investigating.




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[ForceStealer]

Yeah, I mean, I'm not a regular movie goer at all, so I know I'm not in their market anyway. But I also don't follow actors and so I've never watched a movie based on who's in it. Only if I'm interested in the subject. And even then I have to be super interested in it. I'd like to see Deadpool and I still haven't gotten around to it.

 

[Ryushikaze]

Yeah, that's the thing. They're not making it for the fans (the fans know the original is best), they're trying to get a mix of fans, people that heard the name of what it's based on, and maybe people looking for generic action flicks to go watch the movie. Same with e.g. the DBZ movie, or pretty much any American movie that involves non-American characters played by caucasians.

Counter-case; the Attack on Titan movie, which is all right but will probably never score that big in the US market, all things considered.

Hilariously, and a bit ironically, that too is a racebent film. Only two of the characters in AoT are Asian.

 

[Tennyo]

GitS vs Attack on Titan:

America has lots of Asian actors/actresses who speak perfect English. Japan...probably doesn't have a lot of white people who are also actors/actresses and who also speak perfect Japanese.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

America DOES have a lot of talented Asian actresses who speak perfect English, but not a lot who have the star power to sell a movie on their presence alone, the way Scarlett Johansson does. That's the difference between white-washing we normally see in big studio films and what's going on here.




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[Geostigma]

America DOES have a lot of talented Asian actresses who speak perfect English, but not a lot who have the star power to sell a movie on their presence alone, the way Scarlett Johansson does. That's the difference between white-washing we normally see in big studio films and what's going on here.




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Pretty much. Star power definitely fills seats in America it's why Will Smith used to be paid the most in Hollywood. It's why Tom Cruise is a juggernaut and why the Rock is still somehow getting bigger and bigger. I mean The Rock made a disaster movie work, that's something not a lot of actors have been able to do all things considered.

Referencing Adi Shankars video on the Dredd sequel is always worth

As awesome as GitS is it's not a house hold name. It alone isn't going to fill seats so they had to go with a big name in order to more then most likely even get the film greenlit. I promise you if Scarjo or someone equivalent to her wasn't on board this movie would not get made.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

America DOES have a lot of talented Asian actresses who speak perfect English, but not a lot who have the star power to sell a movie on their presence alone, the way Scarlett Johansson does. That's the difference between white-washing we normally see in big studio films and what's going on here.




X

Pretty much. Star power definitely fills seats in America it's why Will Smith used to be paid the most in Hollywood. It's why Tom Cruise is a juggernaut and why the Rock is still somehow getting bigger and bigger. I mean The Rock made a disaster movie work, that's something not a lot of actors have been able to do all things considered.

Referencing Adi Shankars video on the Dredd sequel is always worth

As awesome as GitS is it's not a house hold name. It alone isn't going to fill seats so they had to go with a big name in order to more then most likely even get the film greenlit. I promise you if Scarjo or someone equivalent to her wasn't on board this movie would not get made.

In case you'd missed it, I did a tl;dr write up about this here using that very video

Unsurprisingly, I wrote a thing about the film as a whole, since all of the internet is looking at it now that that picture exists, so while it's a re-tread on things that I've already written here, I'm linking it anyway: http://x-soldier.kinja.com/scarjo-playing-motoko-kusanagi-isnt-white-washing-its-1770994467

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[Geostigma]

I really should just read threads from beginning to end before posting

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I really should just read threads from beginning to end before posting

No worries, I think most everyone missed it, since I didn't make a big deal about it, and we've been discussing the bits and pieces of it incidentally as people've come across the questions on their own and other people've responded to it.




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[X-SOLDIER]

Straight from Max Landis the writer & director of the film:

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