One of the most popular of anime films that I remember seeing was Ghost and the Shell.  That and Akira.  Both of which I haven’t seen in a very long time.

Variety says that Steven Spielberg took great interest in Ghost and the Shell and went out to acquire the rights for Dreamworks.  Dreamworks now planes to create a live action adaption in 3-D. 

DreamWorks has acquired rights to the Japanese manga “Ghost in the Shell” with plans to adapt the futuristic police thriller as a 3-D live-action feature.

Story follows the exploits of a member of a covert ops unit of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission that specializes in fighting technology-related crime.

Created by Masamune Shirow, “Ghost in the Shell” was first published in 1989. It went on to generate two additional manga editions, three anime film adaptations, an anime TV series and three videogames. The second anime film, “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence,” was released in the U.S. by DreamWorks in 2004.

Avi Arad, Ari Arad and Steven Paul of Seaside Entertainment are attached to produce and brought the project to the studio. Jamie Moss has been tapped to pen the adaptation.

Universal and Sony were also chasing “Ghost in the Shell,” but Steven Spielberg took personal interest in the property and made it happen at DreamWorks.

“ ’Ghost in the Shell’ is one of my favorite stories,” Spielberg said. “It’s a genre that has arrived, and we enthusiastically welcome it to DreamWorks.”

Having it in 3-D is completely pointless in my opinion but who really cares anyways.  The fact that Dreamworks has the rights to it, with Steven Spielberg supervising it, gives me hope that this live action adaption will turn out to be something really cool.  Its been years since I last saw this movie.  In fact, I do believe I have it somewhere…  I’m gonna have to try and find it this weekend, because I’d like to rewatch it since its been so long.

Variety doesn’t say whos going to direct it, but I’m praying that Spielberg takes the task because its no secret that Spielberg RULES the future.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t like some of his past scifi movies, because the bottom line is… good story or script doesn’t matter, because everything else is amazing.  Look at films like, A.I. or Minority Report, two films that I like and they look really amazing.  So again… Spielberg rules future design.  So theres to my hoping that he directs.

-Phil

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