Spielberg does Ghost!

DreamWorks has acquired the rights to the classic Japanese manga GHOST IN THE SHELL and will adapt the series into a 3-D live-action feature. Producer Avi Arad (formerly of Marvel Studios) was shopping the project around Hollywood where Universal and Sony were also in the chase. But Spielberg himself took a particular interest in the project and once that happened, it was all she wrote. Says Spielbergo: “GHOST IN THE SHELL is one of my favorite stories. It’s a genre that has arrived, and we enthusiastically welcome it to DreamWorks.” GHOST began as a manga in the late-80s and was eventually adapted into three anime films, two TV series and a number of video games. It’s unclear what plot the DreamWorks movie might take considering the different variations of the franchise all followed different story and time lines. You can expect the same covert ops unit in a futuristic society. It doesn’t appear that GHOST would be a project that Spielberg is interested in possibly directing. I would expect his involvement to be similar to how he worked on TRANSFORMERS. Jamie Moss, who wrote STREET KINGS, is writing the script and can expect a couple of phone calls from Spielberg.