Ghost in the Shell live version

I was a big fan of Ghost in the Shell for several years and having lived in Tokyo during the Stand Alone Complex years it was a thrill to be on the cutting edge of all the promotional marketing being rammed through my eyes while walking through the backstreets of Shibuya. I felt like that simply because I was a casual fan of the storyline, I was being forced to watch the series to see how it developed.

Being a bigger fan of the manga than I was of the movie (and its sequel, Innocence) I was still taken aback and impressed by its transplantation of the setting to Kowloon, Hong Kong instead of.... well frankly the manga made it looked like a cross between Sapporo's Susukino district and the Minatomirai area of Yokohama with bits of Shinjuku thrown in.

So I wonder what the live version will look like, with Steven Spielberg having optioned the rights to it in 2008. It's obviously not on his next-to-be-made list, what with Tintin slated to arrive soon. But I can only guess what elements of the manga or anime he will take for the film. Will the characters remain Japanese? Will it take place in Japan? Or will the whole thing take place in America? With the global market now bigger than the American market, there may be a chance that it will still be a Japanese story. I remember that there was talk of making a live version of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira but having it take place in NYC instead of Neo-Tokyo, which would have been complete bullshit.

But nonetheless, if they keep to the ultra-cyber mysticism of the original storylines, they should maintain a compelling story - Minority Report being a good example.