There has been a lot of understandable talk of late that the cast for the new live-action version of Ghost In The Shell is so far only made up European or American actors such as Scarlett Johansson. That changes today with word that Japanese cinema icon Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano will be part of the line-up.
Rupert Sanders is directing the sci-fi action thriller, which adapts Masamune Shirow’s original 1989 manga (for lots more on the complete history of Ghost In The Shell, head here). Johansson is starring as a female special ops cyborg at the head of an elite task force known as Section 9 commanded by Kitano's Daisuke Aramaki. The team, working for Hanka Robotics, is in charge of stopping dangerous criminals and extremists, and their prime target is The Laughing Man, a terrorist dedicated to wiping out all of Hanka’s cyber technology.
Kitano's casting is something of a coup for Sanders: it's the maverick auteur's first English-language role since Brother in 2000. To find him in an English-language film he didn't direct himself, you have to go even further back, to the compromised but similarly cyberpunk-y Johnny Mnemonic in 1995.
Pilou Asbæk is playing Batou, the second best fighter in the section and Johansson's trusted lieutenant, while Michael Pitt is The Laughing Man. The film will be with us on March 31 next year.