While a live-action Ghost in the Shell movie has been in development for almost ten years and talked about since the manga and animated movies were first released, I’d argue it’s probably a good thing it’s taken this long to get made. A decade ago, the internet was still a new place for millions around the world, the majority of computer users believed their data was safe and secure, and the world’s biggest corporations had yet to be hacked. But over the past few years, hacking went mainstream, with millions hit by identity theft and almost everyone having to change a password due to some intrusion on their network.

All across the planet, we’ve pushed into a new world where technology is as ubiquitous as oxygen. We have seen tremendous gains in virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and robotics. We’re quickly moving into the realm of science fiction being normal life. It’s amazing. But it also might be time to start thinking about what this future could mean when the world of Ghost in the Shell isn’t so far-fetched.

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For those not familiar with the themes in Ghost in the Shell, it explores what it means to be human. When you can copy your consciousness to another body, when do you stop being human? Is it your body or mind or both that makes you who you are? In addition, in the world of Ghost in the Shell, hackers can plant memories in your head and the recipient can’t tell what’s real or fake. The world of Ghost in the Shell tries to deal with real issues in a technologically advanced world.

Of course you can’t make a big budget Hollywood movie tackling these philosophical issues alone. But when you mix in these themes with a cool story and some kick-ass action, it’s the kind of thought provoking stuff that will hopefully lead to a special film.

As you might already know, the Ghost in the Shell movie follows Scarlett Johansson as The Major, a special ops, one-of-a-kind human-cyborg hybrid who leads the elite task force Section 9. Devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists, Section 9 is faced with an enemy whose singular goal is to wipe out advancements in cyber technology. Loaded with an all-star international cast featuring Pilou AsbækMichael Pitt, Juliette Binoche, Kaori Momoi, Rila Fukushima, Chin Han, Danusia Samal, Lasarus Ratuere, Yutaka Izumihara, and Tuwanda Manyimo, the film should be something extremely cool when it opens in theaters March 31, 2017.

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Image via Paramount Pictures

Earlier this year, when Ghost in the Shell was filming in New Zealand, I got to visit the set with a few other reporters. Over the course of the day we conducted numerous interviews with the producers and cast and I walked away thinking director Rupert Sanders (who helmed Snow White and the Huntsman) was crafting something that both fans of the source material and people that know nothing about it would enjoy. I really think the time is right for this story to be told and the amazing visuals alone are going to be worth the price of admission.

While I usually do a list of “things to know” when writing up a set visit, for Ghost in the Shell, I’m mixing it up.  The main reason is we got such great quotes from all the key people that I wanted to let each person speak for themselves. So if you’d like to know a lot more about what to expect in Ghost in the Shell, I’ve provided some highlights from the set.

One of the things fans have been curious about is which storylines the live-action Ghost in the Shell movie might borrow from. Producer Avi Arad told us:

“We’re not doing Puppetmaster. It’s not Laughing Man. It involves Kuze. The Kuze story. The big thing we are doing here is that we’re not necessarily doing an origins backstory, but we are addressing her sense of self and resolving how she defines herself in terms of memories. That’s one of the main thrusts in the story. Inspired by that episode of Affection in Second Gig. It’s bits and pieces of those mixed together.”

He went on to explain why:

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“There are outside villains but they are never the most interesting parts of a movie, especially your first movie. I find that part of the reason we didn’t do Puppetmaster in this movie was we didn’t really feel like we had time to tell that story, and in your first movie the way the characters feel about themselves and the relationship with those people that they care about is usually more than enough story for a movie to handle. So there are villains and they do drive a lot of the story, but they are really there to antagonize her spiritually.

 

The villains in the story are people that are abusing this brave new world. The movie certainly addresses this whole idea of in the future, if you think about everybody’s biggest fear around technology is about getting your identity stolen (which is really just your credit record) as apposed someone hacking your brain could happen here. The more technology gets inside of you and the more it’s woven into your life the more that people can abuse it. So there are characters, both at a criminal level and a governmental level, who are abusing technology and doing scary things.

 

Ghost hacking is a big storyline in the movie and in some ways we take it even further. This idea of if someone could change your memories, what would that do to your sense of self? After you meet that garbageman and you see him in the interrogation room. You’re like ‘that guy’s gone’. You could have a really interesting movie about that guy trying to put his life back together. Being told you don’t have a wife and kids that you thought you did is a big hole.”

One of the things Arad told us that sounded really cool was the way they were lighting the sets. He revealed:

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“We’re doing a new process with LED lighting for the movie. Our cinematographer went through Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell: Innocence and picked out 28 color keys and those are programmed into our LED lighting board so that every lighting set up we have is an amalgamation of those 28 colors. So hopefully the palettes feel like the anime.”

On what you might recognize from some of the animated movies, Arad revealed:

“You’ll recognize some things from Ghost in the Shell: Innocence like the geisha bot. A lot of the time when you see futurist movies either it feels very beautiful and removed and clean or you have to go down a grimy, dystopic world. Rupert was chasing something else that was more similar to the source where it felt really tactile and tangible and you had things like cables even though wireless makes more sense. If you look at the original, the guys’ hands break off and type. Even in 1995 the idea that if you talked to a computer you’d type really, really fast didn’t make sense. That’s where we are coming from a lot of the time.”

On how they’re going to keep the Ghost in the Shell movie fresh and not make it like The Matrix, Arad said:

“Fortunately The Matrix really veered into virtual worlds. We’re not going to do the green scrolling data. Rupert’s come up with some really cool alternative approaches to that. We still have the cables in the head. Their stuff was a little more gruesome than Ghost in the Shell. Especially in the anime there was more of a beauty to it. We thought we were going to have to worry about it more than we actually did.”

One of the things that was never fully fleshed out in the animated movies is whether The Major’s memories were real. That’s something the film will explore. Arad told us:

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“That’s a big part of it. We’re doing everything we can to make her question herself as aggressively as possible. Based on that one conversation in the elevator about ‘how do I know these are my memories?’ That’s a big question and she’s going to wrestle with that the whole movie. What she’s saying is ‘if I don’t know if these are my real memories, then how do I know I have brain in here?’ When does the malicious demon end?”

The movie was made in New Zealand and most assumed that decision was made primarily as a result of tax incentives. Arad told us that was not the case:

“Weta and tax breaks were big drivers, but we also needed a place where they had really good stages, where they had really good art as an infrastructure. We have three stages here but we have so many sets and we basically make a set and then tear it down and rebuild on top of it. We also just needed a place where people could make all the intricate stuff that Rupert was imaging and designing. I don’t there is any filmmaker in the world that doesn’t work around a budget so currency and the tax credits made New Zealand top of the list, but there are places we could have gone that were cheaper, but we couldn’t have made as good a movie. Our close relationship with Weta really helped drive it and it’s been invaluable. They’ve been really creative partners with us since the first drawing.”

In the animated movies and the manga the Major isn’t afraid to be naked. Arad talked about the use of nudity in the film:

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“Rupert wanted to keep it sexy. That’s one of the tricky things about doing futuristic material is the future can get cold really fast. What’s interesting about Ghost in the Shell that all started with the manga was that it’s actually got more relevant in 20 years. The sexuality was something we wanted keep forward. While this (pointing at The Major) is skin tone colour, she’s not actually naked. This is a whole suit she’s wearing. The thermoptic. We’re not actually trying to pretend she’s naked. Some of the stuff she wears in the anime and the manga, when you make a movie things become much more literal. If you’re in a world with someone walking around in a thong, we’re not in a world where that was going to feel natural. So we didn’t do it. But in cases when you’re being born… that’s why they call it the birthday suit.

 

We wanted to be honest to our movie. We’re trying to stick and keep honest to our world. So if someone is going to be naked in the dance club, they’re going to be naked. I don’t know if we’re going to have that kind of nudity in the dancers because, does it make sense for the movie? Scarlett is a brave partner in that regard. We’re not going to see her naked, but we’re also not fleeing from that element. The suit emulates some of the ideas of the panel lines. When you see it the movie you’re not meant to think that that she’s naked. In the anime, when she’s naked, she looks like a person so when you see her bare skin in the movie, with the exception of a few moments when she’s damaged, she looks like a person. If you put her in a body that looks really inhuman that only emotionally isolates her further and that doesn’t feel like the design rules for Ghost in the Shell or for this movie.

 

We weren’t going to have Scarlett or The Major character running around naked in the action scene for a million reasons. It would be strange. It was also cool as there is a vulnerability wearing something like [the thermoptic suit]. You’re still going to feel relatively vulnerable.”

While CGI is great and helps add a lot to movies, Rupert Sanders was adamant that sets be practical and making the movie feel tangible. Arad told us:

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“Rupert has been so dogmatic about keeping this movie feeling tangible. That’s why he insisted on almost every set existing. The crew here has been really astounding building every single set and tearing it down and rebuilt.”

On what sequences they might have pulled from the manga or previous animated films, Arad sounded like they lifted a bit from the original animated movie:

“Everything we pulled from the movie is because we thought it was cool. There’s a whole thermoptic sequence with the garbageman. We did that because we thought it was really cool. What was interesting about Ghost in the Shell is that it was never really a predictive future. It was more about a future that was meant to provoke a feeling in the audience and that’s guided design as much as if we were to hire a bunch of engineers and physicists and futurists to predict things. That’s the same kind of philosophy in this movie. There are things here that are more tangible like the cables or the (lack of finger-splitting) hands. Even the cars. In every version of Ghost in the Shell you’d never see a flying car. Everything felt like it had a combustion engine. It was all about making it feel chunkier and more tangible aesthetic and a mix of an overly dense urban area.”

One of the deeper themes of Ghost in the Shell is questioning your humanity and what makes you human. Arad talked about what questions about humanity the film deals with:

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Image via Paramount Pictures

“Some of the topics in sci-fi that I like the least are ones that suggest that technology will steam-roll us and that we’re quickly losing control of our fate. I think this movie asserts a sense that we can control our humanity. Technically [The Major] is the least human being in the world, but she also cares so much about her humanity. I guess that’s one the important things in the movie is that technology coming into our lives is a dangerous thing in the sense that social media is making people unhappy and all of those things, but those are all self-inflicted.

 

The easiest way to not let technology overrun you is to control it. Turn off your phone. That’s a very simplistic approach. One of the big things in this movie is about the fact you maintain your humanity by choosing to. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy and simple, but it’s a story about people holding onto their humanity. If you were doing a noir movie it would be about people trying to hang on to their morality in an immoral city. So we’re sort of fusing that with all these cops in a really complicated future holding onto their humanity on many levels.”

Even though Scarlett Johansson was incredibly busy filming a major scene in the third act of the film, when she sat down to talk with us she was in a great mood. The first thing we talked about was the way her character, The Major, is having an existential crisis. She told us:

“She’s having an existential crisis for a large portion of this film and asking herself the questions of ‘Who was I? Who am I now? And what will become of me?’ And to stay in that state for this length of time in production has been uniquely challenging. But it’s really rewarding, you know. I like this job, I like doing it. It’s good to be challenged like that.”

On playing a character with a cybernetic body, Johansson talked about the challenges:

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Image via Paramount Pictures

“You can go deep in one direction and play a very sort of unfeeling kind of mechanical sort of gait and her stride, her mannerisms are cold. But you don’t want to be, of course, shut off from the feeling audience, and also from this character’s inner experience. So you know, you kind of work with varying ways of going too far in different directions. I think one of the most important things about the Major is that she’s got a lot of intention, everything she does is intentional and she’s always like moving forward. Because she doesn’t have those kind of mannerisms and tics that make us, when you see when we’re impatient or nervous or decision making. All these things you don’t really think about and things that you develop for characters to give them a lot of life. She doesn't have that stuff and I think maybe the absence of those mannerisms is what gives her her physical character. She’s very efficient, I would say.”

In the manga and the animated film, the Major isn’t shy about showing off her body. We asked Johansson about the Major’s sexuality and if that was something the film would explore.

“I think she’s very removed from her sexuality. She’s in the midst of an identity crisis, which I think, I guess perhaps some people’s sexuality or an abundance of it or whatever, comes at that time. Like they lose themselves in that because they’re missing other parts of themselves, but I think for her, she doesn’t know who she was. She has such a vague idea, this is how we play it in the story, she has such a murky idea of who she was that how would she even know what she likes or who she likes. She also has no heart. Human heart, anyway. So if you would imagine if that could be related to sensuality or sexuality, that part is also missing for her.”

On how the Major changes in the film from what we’ll see at the beginning, Johansson revealed:

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Image via Paramount Pictures

“She accepts the experiences that she’s been through and that she didn’t really have an active choice in where she is and instead of kind of fighting that, by accepting that. She becomes a young woman, you know? She goes kind of from being a child-woman to becoming a young woman. And I think part of that transition is accepting who you are, I guess. But really accepting it. It’s a lot to sit on. She’s different when we see her at the end of this film versus the beginning, certainly. It’s kind of a loss of innocence that happens, but the gain is really significant.”

One of the things that excites fans and people familiar with the material is the world of Ghost in the Shell and how cool it could look on a movie screen because it shows a future that’s blends technology with the real world and not some dark future. Johansson agrees. She told us:

“It is a really cool world and I think what’s interesting about it is it’s not, you know, I think we’re very used to the idea of the future in an armageddon context or a post-apocalyptic kind of idea or it’s very stringent, like Spike [Jonze] did with Her. Everything’s kind of digitized and computerized and clean or absence of character. This movie, I think, it’s Rupert’s idea of, he described it to me as cities built on cities and the abundance of waste. It’s a kind of collage of cultures and it’s sort of identity-less in that as a whole melange of different kinds of textures and colors and, it’s really rich. The depth of this movie is amazing. I find that the sets are so incredibly detailed and the thought that goes into each set even in the very sterile sets, like all the Hanka hallway stuff and laboratory stuff. There’s a lot of texture and depth to the way that it’s shot and the way that it’s dressed. Of course the format that they’re shooting in also really adds a lot of texture and depth too. So it’s visually delicious, I think for people. Especially fans of the material will appreciate the look of it a lot, as Rupert’s been very dedicated to making that stuff come to life for people. So, that’s cool. And, from what I’ve seen, I don’t watch a lot of stuff, but from what I’ve seen before, I think Jess [Hall, the cinematographer] is doing with the visuals are beautiful. It’s really photographic and very rich. And I think people will enjoy that part of it.”

Of course when you adapt popular source material you’ll always have to deal with some fans that will be upset if you change anything. Johansson talked about the transition from page to screen:

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Image via Paramount Pictures

“One thing that will be very different probably is we’re not making the Frank Miller world where those graphic novels come to life. We have kind of the iconic iconography of the manga and stuff, but I think people will be surprised at the gritty kind of realness of this. For a person that doesn’t have a heart, it has a lot of heart, I think. The way that we’re telling it. Anyway, that’s the hope.”

During our interview with Michael Costigan, executive producer of Ghost in the Shell, he talked about what the film is about:

“It’s both an active story in the middle of the world of Section 9 and the Major and also an origins story, and very much an awakening for several characters in the movie. So you are both immersed in it from the beginning, but it’s also an awakening and a questioning of ‘what am I’, ‘who am I’ in the middle of a very active story.”

On the challenges of bringing this movie to life, Costigan said:

“It’s a world where people are enhanced. What is evolution? Who is a human and who is enhanced? What are these different stages? If you’re enhanced there is a lot of that idea of what would you want to be in that future. You can learn something immediately or do anything. The possibilities are endless. There’s the production design element of it, but there’s also the prosthetics we used to show how people have enhanced themselves, their minds, their bodies. We’ll see that through the Section 9 characters. We’ve been working hand-in-hand with design, costume, Weta for the prosthetics and the builds to work out what that future would be like, look like.

 

It’s a future where people are enhanced and have used technology and it’s also exploring when that works and when that can be manipulated and used. It’s, frankly, everything that we’re dealing with and questioning because there aren’t answers so that’s why I think the movie is so relevant right now. Look at all the great things and access you can have. If you have it, what can you do with it? You can do great things with it. But if you can take the same technology and do bad things with it, it can be dangerous. Who is monitoring that? That is something the movie gets to delve into.”

If you’re a fan of the animated movie, you know how iconic the score is. We asked if the score is going to be inspired by the anime and all he’d say is:

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“We love the score from the anime. We don’t have any answers on that yet but we do love the anime.”

On possibly battling the MPAA down the road due to blood or nudity, Costigan said, “We decided from the beginning to make the movie the way we’re supposed to make it and then figure it out from there.”

On what we might see regarding the Major’s body, “What are the markings on the body? What’s there, what’s not there? All of that had to get discussed. In the anime you really see the Major and what she looks like and there have been so many conversations about that and I think the world will get to know sooner rather than later. We were very faithful to the anime, let me put it that way.”

While the majority of the movie was shot in New Zealand, the production went to Hong Kong for a few weeks. Costigan explained why they had to go there:

“The anime is inspired by Hong Kong. That cityscape is a Hong Kong based fusion with Japanese so that’s why we are going to Hong Kong because it’s truest to the anime. It also felt true to the future of what this is all going to look like. I think we’ve been very true to all the Japanese part of it. We are very close to the creators.”

With the popularity of the manga and animated series, people have tried for a long time to make a Ghost in the Shell live-action movie. Costigan explained why it was finally able to be made:

“I think a lot of it is about the fact that we know what the movie means. What’s at stake in the future when we’ve moved past these things where being hacked is being vulnerable and what can be taken from you. This idea has gone from high-level fantasy to science fiction that’s already starting to exist now. It feels like a lot of this that, maybe in the past, might have really felt like fantasy, science fiction that’s way in the future – it now has stakes now. I think it feels tangible now. And with technology itself allows us to create this world now between what we are building, what we are doing with Weta, what we are doing with MPC. Before it would have costs hundreds of millions of dollars whereas now we can actually do it. So I think it’s those factors.”

When talking about the role of gender in the film, Costigan explained what’s great about the roles:

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“Gender is really explored because there are deep friendships and deep emotional relationships. It’s complicated because who’s human and who’s cyborised, who is not human in the movie? But, even if you’re not human in the movie and have human emotions like love or fear or desire that was interesting for female and male characters. There are very tight relationships where women can have all ranges of behavior. They can be really strong and really tough and have emotion where guys can be really tough. But Batou, our big tough guy, actually has so much emotion that he’s running away from. I think it’s really baked in there actually. It gets complicated which is why this Dr. Ouelet character was chosen to be female also does make it interesting. How would a female Dr. Ouelet evaluate this and make the choices that she makes? I think they are amazing. I think it really does play out.”

Of course we had to ask about possibly sequels and spin-offs. Costigan told us:

“Everyone is so immersed in this movie that they feel like there are many, many more stories in the world. Everything you’ve seen has been designed from the ground up. People here are so immersed in the world and where does it go? Everybody thinks there are a lot of possibilities for sure. Scarlett is really into it to. When she signed onto the franchise this is a character that she wants to play and can see being done for a long time. Actors don’t take it lightly anymore. When you sign up for one of these movies you’re signing up for a multitude of films so that is something to take seriously.”

Pilou Asbæk, who plays Batou, talked about how much of that spirituality and philosophy of the animated film has made it into this version of the story:

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“I think a lot. I think Rupert really tried. And we’re still trying because we’re halfway through the film. You never know what film you’re going to get until it’s been through Neil’s hands, who’s the editor. You have an idea and sometimes you get excited and thrilled when you see this movie and sometimes you get very disappointed. My gut feeling with this film is that we’re actually making something very special. Where I come from, the more people fighting us, the more I enjoy it. You know? That’s the Scandinavian mind. That’s what I enjoy. And I know that a lot of people are really wishing this to be not turning out well, but they’re going to have a long nose next year.”

In the animated movie, the relationship between the Major and Batou is more like an uncle and he’s always looking out for her and not in a romantic kind of way.

One of the big changes at Weta Workshop is the way they’ve gone from making everything by hand to using technology to help them manufacture. Richard Taylor explains:

“On Lord of the Rings, 100% of everything we made was handmade by the technicians on the workshop floor, by the time we reached The Hobbit, 60% of everything we made on The Hobbit was manufactured by robots in the workshop. Mainly robots that we’ve built on the workshop floor so milling machines, plasma cutters, laser cutters, and 3D printers. And I would say that maybe 85% of Ghost in the Shell has been manufactured on robots. We had to buy twelve new 3D printers to pull off deadline for Ghost in the Shell. So, it’s great that you’re building robots on robots. Which is nice. We even built a robot that builds the components for the robots we built, it’s very cool. Sort of like in the very heart of the movie we’re working on. We’ve been very fortunate that this director has not immediately turned to a digital effects solution for everything and has loved the idea of keeping a lot in camera, which is obviously great. Greatly beneficial for us, being a practical effects company."

 

"So we’ve done a huge amount of the shelling sequence practically. Things like Scarlett’s thermoptic suit, which may be in another filmmaker’s film category would have immediately fallen under a digital effect, tracking Scarlett’s face on using a digital character or using digital doubles, has been an extraordinary physical effects suit, very challenging effects suit. Probably the first time a full-silicon suit has been built for an actress. Requiring us to take digital scans of Scarlett, manufacture cores of greatly reduced circumferences to her so we can cinch her into this body-hugging skin that almost looks like she’s in the nude, an almost nude cyborg because she goes thermoptic and turns invisible in the movie. So she had to go through this transitional period where she’s dropped her clothes away revealing this android-like suit, so that’s been great fun building. And lots and lots of other stuff. So that’s a nutshell of what we’ve been doing.”

Richard Taylor also talked about how Ghost in the Shell couldn’t have been made even a year ago:

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“We definitely couldn’t have made the movie a year ago in some parts of it. Well, we couldn’t have made the movie a year ago in the way we made it today. And it would have been a lesser visual at a physical effects workshop level than if we had made it a year ago. And I would even argue that maybe the window was as tight as six months. A good example is that the material that we made the shelling sequence skeleton out of, which is a product called VeraClear that you put through a specific type of 3D printer that we just happened to own, wasn’t invented last year. So the ability to actually utilize the material to the degree that we have, and hack the machines so we can use it in the way we want to use it, would have limited our ability to do what we’ve done.”

Tumblr played a role in the costumes and look of the film. According to Kurt and Bart, the costume designers:

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Image via Paramount Pictures

“Rupert is super visual and he has really specific taste, and I think that led things really in the beginning in the amount of visual research. It used to be you’d go to the library and you’d go to bookstores and you’d go to museums and you still do that, but a huge part of the research is all done online now. Different Tumblrs act as curators. If you want to look up light-skinned black girls with freckles and red hair, there’s be like three Tumblrs just devoted to that. It’s kind of like people who curate these Tumblrs, they can serve as research pockets. Rupert’s very obsessive about that, so there was a huge sharing of information at the beginning, and I think we all melded and started to refine what the aesthetic was. I think it’s a really cool blend between what’s happening now in the world influencing movies that are going to come out later and are going to reinfluence people, and fashion influencing film and film influencing fashion.

 

But it’s funny, those Tumblrs, you look at them — at least the ones we were looking at a lot — and Ghost is all over them. You know, like future fanfare and those are all super beautiful and it’s all Ghost, Ghost, Ghost, but it’s also fashion now, which is really interesting to see all that mixed together because it kind of fits perfectly the way these are all curated together even though they’re from different eras. I think, in the end, Rupert really wanted to curate this timeless film in the same way you watch Alien now and films like that. They just seem kind of timeless. They don’t look dated, and they’re not too sci-fi. That kind of became a bad word to Rupert. There’s “oh, it’s too sci-fi,” and there’s “it’s not sci-fi enough.” You’re like, what? Hopefully it’s that middle ground.”

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Some other interesting bits were:

  • The action sequences in Ghost in the Shell were designed by Guy Norris who previously worked on Suicide Squad, Mad Max: Fury Road, and dozens of other films.
  • The thermoptic suit shows up a couple of times in different moments.
  • The shelling sequence will be a mix of practical and CG.
  • The finale of the movie will feature The Major fighting the giant spider tank. It’ll also feature her wearing the thermoptic suit. One of the things everyone in New Zealand was proud of is the sequence features the largest set they’ve ever built on the backlot.
  • The production partnered with Adidas to do the combat boots for Section 9. They hope when the film comes out the company will do a limited run of the shoes for fans to purchase. Kurt, one of the costume designers, told us, “Adidas, to me, gets fashion. They’ve really been innovative with working with designers like Rick Owens, Raf Simons and people like that as far as developing purely fashion sneakers, and they’re all really expensive and they’re all really cool. But I think they get it and they get that there’s a market for that.”
  • Weta manufactured The Major’s thermoptic suit.

Ghost in the Shell opens March 31, 2017. For more from our set visit:

Look for more interviews in the coming weeks.