Why ScarJo as the Major? Because she basically already is the Major.

[Paragon Fury]

So a lot of people have been a bit upset that Scarlett Jo. got the role of Major Kusanagi in the Ghost in the Shell live action film, thinking the part should've gone to other actors, like the woman who played Mako Maori in Pacific Rim.

I agreed.....until I stopped and gave it some more thought. After that I realized that ScarJo is pretty much the perfect person to play the Major and that it would actually be hard to find a BETTER actress to play the Major.

Why?

Because ScarJo has already proven on no less than 4 occasions that she basically IS MAJOR KUSANAGI.

She has already proven in 4 big-budget, popular and well received films (Iron Man 2, Avengers 1, Winter Soldier and Lucy) that she is capable of carrying and portraying the kind of attitude, presence and physicality that being Major Kusanagi would require. What do I mean?

Scarlette Jo. Performance Examples

Spoiler

Major Kusanagi Performance Examples

Spoiler

I unfortunately couldn't find any decent clips of where she goes on a couple of her more personal hand-to-hand ass kicking sprees.

Yeah.....ScarJo should do just fine. And if you notice, the Major while she IS Japanese, could easily be portrayed by someone not Japanese; her nationality is not as important as many make it out to be. Its not like someone is trying to cast a white/asian person as say....Othello.

Its also not like say...the live action AoT film using an all Asian cast for a series where the setting is distinctly European, the characters are all directly stated as being European and the one person who isn't European serves as an important plot point.

 

[Queen Michael]

Nobody's quesitoning Scarlett Johansson's competence. It's the principle. The "everybody's got to be white" thing.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

ScarJo rocks. And from what I've seen from her and from Major, she's a great choice.
Makes more sense than casting William Fichtner as Shredder anyway.
I know he ended up playing a different character, but come on. The swap was obvious.

 

[SNCommand]

Well this has already been beaten to death like a deceased equine, but technically yeah, I agree, ethnicity shouldn't really matter, just as it didn't for Heimdall in Thor, it's a fictional character, hollywood can be as faitful to the source as they want

The movie is going to be absolute shit though, about 90% sure, I'm expecting the next Dragonball Evolution/Last Airbender from this project

They'll need large amounts of CGI if ScarJo is going to emulate something like this scene, doubtful there will be anything like it though as PG-13 is the golden rule in hollywood action cinema these days, NSFW

Spoiler

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

I never had a problem with the casting, nor any casting with white people to be honest. I mean, I'm a minority myself. Hell, I'm one of the most minor minorities out there, so I see films where I have to relate to a character not my race all the time, and I have no problem with that. I don't go around demanding there to be more Hawaiian/Puerto Rican protagonists out there (Although to be fair, that would be pretty cool.) This seems like such a white people complaint, no offense.

I only seen the original GitS film, and barely remember it, and haven't seen SOC, so I can't say I really care that much about Major Kusanagi or the series to begin with. I'd probably check the series out before the movie comes out, though.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Nobody's quesitoning Scarlett Johansson's competence. It's the principle. The "everybody's got to be white" thing.

The problem is, in particularly with females; it's pretty hard to find someone who fits both the type AND has the chops to actually do the role. Hollywood is more than a little risk adverse so they're going to go with "know competence and we'll fudge out the race details later" more often than not. Especially when the race/nationality is not vital to the character.

For filling men's and boy's roles, you have a WHOLE lot more options just because there simply are more. Let's take say....a live action Naruto, shall we?

You can probably name several suitable male actors for nearly every male role in the series; this is especially easy because most of the males are not nationality/race specific for the most part.

Where you're going to get hung up is trying to fill the female roles. Because several of them ARE nation/race specific (Hinata jumps immediately to mind) AND several of them need very specific body/personality types to work at all. Like for example; Lady Tsunade.

You need a large, physically imposing woman - Tsunade is the largest, strongest woman in the entirety of the show, with only a couple of women being slightly taller than her (Misokage), a few males, and she is more imposing than most males as well (Raikage, Killer Bee and Jiraya being the only ones to come to mind) - who is ALSO physically attractive (and has the voice to match. Tsunade's voice is actually pretty husky/deep especially in the Japanese version). I think there is literally one actress capable of playing her - the woman who played the female Russian pilot in Pacific Rim.

If you can't get that, you're gonna have to take the next best thing. In the case of the Major; you could try a lesser known actor who looks a little more the part, but is untested/not well-known for their action abilities, or you could take ScarJo who fits the personality and physicality of the character to a "T" and fudge the race part.

 

[Paragon Fury]

-Snip-

If they're smart, they'll go with the Stand Alone Complex movies/series. Easier to make into a movie, less gruesome/weird, and lets them make a good philosophical movie without trying too hard while still making a great action movie. SAC also a is bit more humorous and fun overall; better for a general audience.

 

[SNCommand]

-Snip-

If they're smart, they'll go with the Stand Alone Complex movies/series. Easier to make into a movie, less gruesome/weird, and lets them make a good philosophical movie without trying too hard while still making a great action movie. SAC also a is bit more humorous and fun overall; better for a general audience.

Most likely true, original movie adaptation was made in 1995, that's like 20 years ago now, was a whole other time, SAC is a bit closer to modern expectations

It's still going to suck though, Avatar: The Last Airbender was the easiest adaptation of an animated series they could possibly make, it's basically just Star Wars in an East Asian fantasy setting, but no, they cocked it up

My hopes are low, really low

 

[Dansen]

Scarlet can definitely do the whole bad ass ice queen act the major has, so that isn't too upsetting. Its just unfortunate that they couldn't choose an asian actor.

Now what I'm more concerned about is what this will mean for the movie's setting. Will Hollywood take the series away from Japan and put it in the US? Are they going to whitewash the team? If so I will be disappointed, all the cool international cases from Stand Alone revolve around the fact that Japan is struggling to assert itself Globally, only being able to hold on due to the miraculous nuclear scrubbers. That and having to accept refugees from the previous wars, leading to unwanted crime(from militant refugees) that sec 9 ends up dealing with.

If they are going to do away with having the whole cast being asian then I would like to see Morgan Freedman play chief Aramaki. I think he could pull of being that stern calculating old man. There may be better choices though.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Scarlet can definitely do the whole bad ass ice queen act the major has, so that isn't too upsetting. Its just unfortunate that they couldn't choose an asian actor.

Now what I'm more concerned about is what this will mean for the movie's setting. Will Hollywood take the series away from Japan and put it in the US? Are they going to whitewash the team? If so I will be disappointed, all the cool international cases from Stand Alone revolve around the fact that Japan is struggling to assert itself Globally, only being able to hold on due to the miraculous nuclear scrubbers. That and having to accept refugees from the previous wars, leading to unwanted crime(from militant refugees) that sec 9 ends up dealing with.

If they are going to do away with having the whole cast being asian then I would like to see Morgan Freedman play chief Aramaki. I think he could pull of being that stern calculating old man. There may be better choices though.

The thing is, with the exception of Aramaki and Togusa, the rest of the Section 9 crew could easily be taken for a different nationality.

Batou is easily Russian/Eastern European.

Saito could be Russian, American, even Latino.

What-his-face computer guy could be anything, really.

Most of their other employees are carbon copy Caucasian androids or AI controlled think-tanks.

 

[SNCommand]

Nobody's quesitoning Scarlett Johansson's competence. It's the principle. The "everybody's got to be white" thing.

The problem is, in particularly with females; it's pretty hard to find someone who fits both the type AND has the chops to actually do the role.

Rinko Kikuchi [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0452860/?ref_=tt_cl_t4]

Trust me, you don't want to drag her along with this sinking ship, you don't want to Hally Berry her

 

[Paragon Fury]

Nobody's quesitoning Scarlett Johansson's competence. It's the principle. The "everybody's got to be white" thing.

The problem is, in particularly with females; it's pretty hard to find someone who fits both the type AND has the chops to actually do the role.

Rinko Kikuchi [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0452860/?ref_=tt_cl_t4]

That'd be like getting Peter Dinklage to play Batou, or Keeanu Reeves to play Kakashi.

Rinko comes damn near close to looking perfectly like the Major, its true.

But she has never shown that she has the chops for an action movie where she has to be extremely physically active and physically manhandle people, or carry herself the way the Major does.

And she is too short by several good bits. Harsh I know; but a big part of the Major (only Batou and a few of the male villan antagonists are taller than she is to start with) is that she is pretty physically imposing and looks like she is capable of violence if she needs to be. Rinko would barely come up to Batou's or Togusa's stomach; not very intimidating.

Rinko also seems like a poor fit personality wise for Motoko; especially since Rinko doesn't like nudity unless nessacary while any accurate portrayal of the Major is going to hit on how the Major is pretty "clothes-optional".

 

[Dansen]

The thing is, with the exception of Aramaki and Togusa, the rest of the Section 9 crew could easily be taken for a different nationality.

Batou is easily Russian/Eastern European.

Saito could be Russian, American, even Latino.

What-his-face computer guy could be anything, really.

Most of their other employees are carbon copy Caucasian androids or AI controlled think-tanks.

dunno, Saito is really Japanese name. Ishikawa, the computer guy, has another really Japanese name. You could make Paz a latino even though it is most likely a nickname/codename in the series. Batou could be white, doubt there are a lot of tall built asian actors, you wont see the actors eyes at all anyways. Boma, I dont care, hes the least developed member of the team. Now Togusa, I wont care if they make him white as long as the actor is sporting that epic mullet.

Another thing that concerns me is the rating. To do this series justice it needs to be rated R. I really want to see some androids and cyborgs get their limbs/heads get blown off. Their is also a sexual element to consider but its by no means necessary. Also nudity is used by the series to emphasize the frailty/meaninglessness of the the body, not necessary but liked it when it was used in the series. Limiting themselves to PG-13 would really damage the authenticity of the movie.

Speaking of rated R anime adaptations, where is my live action Berserk? Aside from the homosexual undertones the west would eat the story up, especially taking into acount the reception that Game of Thrones has received.

 

[SNCommand]

oh most definitely. but the idea that non-white good actresses are as hard to find as mythical unicorns is an entirely short sided and incredibly stupid idea.

There certainly are some, but I think one has to consider that there's also schedules to fit, actor has to be willing to play the part, who knows, they might have even contacted Kikuchi and she said no

The fact that there's so many white actresses in hollywood means the numbers are going to get skewed just by that fact, and trying to circumvent that reality with some form for affirmative action would probably have negative results, the fact that actor schools are primarily filled with white people to a ridiculous degree means that's where most of the talent will be, Rinko Kikuchi for example did not make her name in hollywood, but instead she crafted her talent in Japan then started getting attention abroad

 

[SNCommand]

And she is too short by several good bits. Harsh I know; but a big part of the Major (only Batou and a few of the male villan antagonists are taller than she is to start with) is that she is pretty physically imposing and looks like she is capable of violence if she needs to be. Rinko would barely come up to Batou's or Togusa's stomach; not very intimidating.

Isn't ScarJo shorter though? A quick google search tells me Johanson is 160cm while Kikuchi is 169cm

 

[CommanderZx2]

Nobody's quesitoning Scarlett Johansson's competence. It's the principle. The "everybody's got to be white" thing.

The problem is, in particularly with females; it's pretty hard to find someone who fits both the type AND has the chops to actually do the role.

Rinko Kikuchi [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0452860/?ref_=tt_cl_t4]

That'd be like getting Peter Dinklage to play Batou, or Keeanu Reeves to play Kakashi.

Rinko comes damn near close to looking perfectly like the Major, its true.

But she has never shown that she has the chops for an action movie where she has to be extremely physically active and physically manhandle people, or carry herself the way the Major does.

And she is too short by several good bits. Harsh I know; but a big part of the Major (only Batou and a few of the male villan antagonists are taller than she is to start with) is that she is pretty physically imposing and looks like she is capable of violence if she needs to be. Rinko would barely come up to Batou's or Togusa's stomach; not very intimidating.

Rinko also seems like a poor fit personality wise for Motoko; especially since Rinko doesn't like nudity unless nessacary while any accurate portrayal of the Major is going to hit on how the Major is pretty "clothes-optional".

I thought she handled the fight scene in Pacific Rim pretty well:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr2pOTDCQQM

 

[Zhukov]

The problem (for those who consider it such) and the discussion was never about whether Johansson has the chops to pull it off. I think by now we are all well aware that she can do action scenes and impassive ice queens.

It's about race. The Major is a Japanese character. Johansson is decidedly not Japanese. (Personally

I really can't be arsed getting into the whole white-washing subject since I don't have strong feelings on movie casting and it's a whole can of worms that gets people angry for some reason. All I have to say is that I think it would sound pretty comical seeing her addressed and introducing herself as "Motoko Kusanagi". She does not look like a Motoko Kusanagi.

...

And she is too short by several good bits. Harsh I know; but a big part of the Major (only Batou and a few of the male villan antagonists are taller than she is to start with) is that she is pretty physically imposing and looks like she is capable of violence if she needs to be. Rinko would barely come up to Batou's or Togusa's stomach; not very intimidating.

Okay, now you're just making shit up.

Not that I've ever seen them side-by-side or anything, but I'm pretty damn sure the Pacific Rim chick is a good couple of inches taller than Johannson. So if she's too short then Johannson is completely out of the running, right?

 

[The Madman]

Can I just say I only watched this movie for the first time a couple days ago and while good, I'm still not quite sure what this:

Spoiler: NSFW

was meant to accomplish. I get that she's a cyborg with an existential crisis and a bit of a death wish, but even so trying (And failing miserably) to pull a tank apart with her bare hands wasn't exactly the brightest of moves, especially not for a computer brain that ought to know better. Even if she is a bit reckless bordering on suicidal.

As for Scarlett Johansson playing that character in a live action movie, it's not the worst choice. It just seems like Scarlett's become Hollywood's go-to choice for generic tough martial arts lady in movies to the point it's becoming a bit of a cliche. I would prefer someone new.