Rila Fukushima has joined the cast of DreamWork Pictures’s and Scarlett Johansson’s upcoming live action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell.
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Originally created by Masamune Shirow as a manga, the cyberpunk story of Ghost in the Shell follows Major Motoko Kusanagi (Johansson), the cyborg leader of Section 9, an elite government task force that monitors and fights cybercrime and cyberterrorism in a future where almost all humans have some sort of hackable cybernetic enhancement. Kusanagi’s own body is entirely artificial.
Ghost in the Shell has been adapted into several animated films and series, including the classic 1995 cyberpunk anime film and the critically-acclaimed 2002-2003 series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
Ghost in the Shelll will be directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) from a script by Jonathan Herman and Jamie Moss.
In addition to Johansson, Fukushima joins a cast that also includes Pilou Asbรฆk, Michael Pitt, Takeshi Kitano and Juliette Binoche. The film has come under some criticism for casting white actors as traditionally Japanese characters.
The Tokyo-born Fukushima is best known to Western audiences for playing Yukio opposite Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine, and for playing Katana on The CW’s superhero series Arrow.
DreamWork’s Pictures’ live action Ghost in the Shell will borrow its plot and antagonist from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, pitting Major Kusanagi and Section 9 against the master hacker and cyberterrorist known as The Laughing Man.
Ghost in the Shell is scheduled for theatrical release on March 31, 2017.
