Despite the growing number of petitioners to recast Scarlett Johansson in the lead role of "Ghost in the Shell" live-action movie, it seems like DreamWorks is already gearing up for the project.
With the shooting about to start early next year, as revealed by the 31-year-old "Avengers" actress, new cast members are slowly being revealed.
"It will be shooting the beginning of next year," Johansson previously told Collider. "So I think we start production January or February and it's me and Rupert [Sanders]; and that's all I know."
Now, two more actors have reportedly been added to the line up.
According to Variety, "Maleficent" actor Sam Riley is now in negotiations to take on the villain role (Laughing Man) for the live-action movie adaptation of Masamune Shirow's manga, described as "a hacker capable of such feats as hijacking multiple video streams simultaneously, taking over someone's cybernetic brain entirely and editing his own images out of someone's cybernetic eyes, and all in real time."
Meanwhile, Scarlett Johansson's "Lucy" co-star Pilou Asbæk, has also been recently asked to play the sidekick, Batou.
Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) will be directing the film with Steven Paul and Avi Arad producing, while Michael Costigan, Tetsu Fujimara, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and Jeffrey Silver are executive producing.
The "Ghost In The Shell" live-action movie, according to Variety, "follows a female special ops cyborg who leads an elite task force called Section 9 for Hanka Robotics. Section 9 is devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists, led by The Laughing Man whose singular goal is towipe out Hanka's advancements in cyber technology."
In 1995, Mamoru Oshii decided to adapt Masamune Shirow's 1989 manga into an animation and in 2002 it was developed into a TV series titled, "Ghost In The Shell: Standalone Complex."
The success of the film and the series was followed up by a sequel in 2004 called "Ghost In The Shell: Innocence" with Batou as the film's main protagonist and was quickly followed by another animated feature, "Ghost In The Shell: Solid State Society" in 2006.
The "Ghost In The Shell" live action movie is set to hit theaters on March 31, 2017.
