Digital Duplication: See How Scarlett Johansson 'Ghost in the Shell' Scenes Look Side-By-Side With Original Anime
Rupert Sanders’ Ghost in the Shell has been plagued by a “whitewashing” controversy ever since it was first announced that Scarlett Johansson would star as The Major, a debate that rages on even after last week’s release of the film’s initial theatrical trailer. For fans concerned about the faithfulness of Sanders’ live-action version, however, a new comparison video points to the striking similarities between the new movie and its classic 1995 animé source material.
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As evidenced by the clip above (via Collider), which uses footage from both Ghost in the Shell’s trailer and a “Shelling Sequencing Clip” that recently debuted on IGN, Sanders clearly has taken great pains to re-create the imagery and aesthetics of Mamoru Oshii’s animated classic (which itself was based on Masamune Shirow’s acclaimed manga). Whether that translates into a great stand-alone work, or merely makes the forthcoming sci-fi movie a case study in expert mimicry, is for now an unanswerable question. Nonetheless, it’s clear that Johansson’s turn as The Major, a cyborg cop tasked with investigating a rash of cyber-terrorism attacks, will be hewing very closely to its roots.
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To judge how well Sanders has stayed true to Ghost in the Shell, check out the video above, then watch the full trailer below. The film, co-starring Pilou Asbaek, Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche, and Michael Pitt, uploads to theaters on March 31, 2017.
‘Ghost in the Shell’: Watch the first trailer: