The live-action adaptation of "Ghost in the Shell" has added Michael Pitt to its cast as the Laughing Man, the movie's villain. He will be pitting his smarts against Motoko Kusanagi, played by Scarlett Johansson.
Slated to start filming in New Zealand later in the month, the adaptation will be directed by Rupert Sanders ("Snow White and the Huntsman"), working from a script by Jonathan Herman. Steven Paul, Avi Arad and Ari Arad are also on board as producers, with Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Tetsu Fujimura, Jeffrey Silver and Michael Costigan as executive producers.
The "Ghost in the Shell" adaptation will tell the story of a cyborg cop attempting to bring down a computer hacker. In "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex," one of the anime's story arcs focused on the Laughing Man and the conspiracy connected to him. Kusanagi posed as the Laughing Man to unveil this conspiracy involving Serano Genomics but when the government discovered that Section 9 (Kusanagi's group) had been investigating, it disbanded and declared war on the group.
As a hacker, Laughing Man had so much skill that he is able to hack into cameras and cyber-brain implants, replacing his face with a logo to hide himself in real time and altering memories. The character was named after the short story "The Laughing Man" by J.D. Salinger and the logo he uses features a quote from Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye." The quote reads: "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."
"Ghost in the Shell" is due to come out March 31, 2017. It was supposed to be released by Disney but the task has been handed over to Paramount Pictures instead. This will be the first time since "A Thousand Words" that Dreamworks Pictures and Paramount will be working on releasing the same film.
Aside from Pitt and Johansson, Pilou Asbaek will also be appearing in "Ghost in the Shell" as Batou, Kusanagi's second-in-command in Section 9.
