Chin Han is “Togusa” – Ghost in The Shell SF Interview -Recording Artist JoLivi, Chats with the Actor Who Fights Alongside Scarlet Johanssen this Weekend
Chin Han sits down with our special guest correspondent JoLivi and the two talk mullets, Mateba revolvers, and manga. Ghost in the Shell is in theaters this weekend. Watch the interview above and check out the film. In the near future, Major (Scarlett Johansson) is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world’s most dangerous criminals. When terrorism reaches a new level that includes the ability to hack into people’s minds and control them, Major is uniquely qualified to stop it. As she prepares to face a new enemy, Major discovers that she has been lied to: her life was not saved, it was stolen. She will stop at nothing to recover her past, find out who did this to her and stop them before they do it to others. Based on the internationally acclaimed Japanese Manga, “The Ghost in the Shell.”
Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers, Lost in Translation) heads up an international cast that also features Pilou Asbæk (Ben-Hur, Lucy), “Beat” Takeshi Kitano (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Battle Royale series), Juliette Binoche (The English Patient, Chocolat), Michael Carmen Pitt (“Hannibal,” “Boardwalk Empire”), Chin Han (Independence Day: Resurgence), Danusia Samal (“Tyrant”), Lasarus Ratuere (“Terra Nova”), Yutaka Izumihara (Unbroken) and Tawanda Manyimo (The Rover), as well as Daniel Henshall (AMC’s series “TURN: Washington’s Spies”) and Kaori Momoi (Memoirs Of A Geisha).
Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures and Reliance Entertainment present Ghost in the Shell, based on the famous Kodansha Comics manga series written and illustrated by Shirow Masamune. The film is produced by Avi Arad, p.g.a. (X-Men, The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2, Iron Man), Ari Arad, p.g.a. (Iron Man, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance), Steven Paul (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) and Michael Costigan (Prometheus). Tetsu Fujimura (A.Li.Ce), Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Jeffrey Silver (Edge of Tomorrow) and Yoshinobu Noma executive produce. Based on the comic THE GHOST IN THE SHELL by Shirow Masamune. Screenplay by Jamie Moss and William Wheeler and Ehren Kruger. Directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman).
Director of photography is Jess Hall (The Spectacular Now). Production designer is Jan Roelfs (Fast & Furious 6, Gattaca). Visual effects supervisor is Guillaume Rocheron (Life of Pi, Godzilla). Costume designers are Kurt and Bart (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Parts 1& 2, Dallas Buyer’s Club). Editors are Neil Smith and Billy Rich. Composer is Clint Mansell (Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream). Makeup and hair designer is Jane O’Kane (Pete’s Dragon, Guardians of the Galaxy); Special effects provided by five-time Academy Award®-winner Sir Richard Taylor and his team at WETA Workshop (The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchises).
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Set in a near-future society where the line between humans and technology is increasingly blurred, the stunningly imagined live-action feature Ghost in the Shell traces the origins of Major, the first successful cyber-enhanced human and leader of the crime-fighting force Section 9.
Since the publication of Masamune Shirow’s original manga in 1989, Ghost in the Shell has inspired a devoted worldwide following, including influential filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and the Wachowskis. The epic media franchise already includes two landmark anime feature films and two television series, as well as novels, video and mobile games.
Over the past three decades the popularity of Ghost in the Shell has continued to grow as its central themes have become more pertinent. “It’s a cautionary tale about technology,” says producer Avi Arad, the former Chairman, CEO and founder of Marvel Studios. “Ghost in the Shell raises interesting philosophical questions in a futuristic setting, but it also happens to be relevant to issues we face right now. It’s about what defines us as individuals — our history versus our actions. And it does all that in the context of a big, exciting action film.”
The film began its long journey to the screen, when Avi Arad pitched the project to Steven Spielberg — with help from an unexpected source. “I ran into Steven and his young daughter on the beach in Malibu,” he recounts. “She knew everything you can imagine about Ghost in the Shell. She did the pitch for me. That started the ball rolling.”
In 2008, Spielberg and DreamWorks acquired the rights to make the first live-action version of Ghost in the Shell, with Avi Arad, Ari Arad, Steven Paul and Michael Costigan as producers, and Tetsu Fujimura, Yoshinobu Noma, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and Jeffrey Silver as executive producers. Almost eight years of painstaking efforts to get the right script, director and star would follow.
To helm the ambitious project, the producers selected British director Rupert Sanders, best known for his dark action epic, Snow White and the Huntsman. “Rupert Sanders is a visionary,” says Avi Arad. “He always loved the project and he knew how important it could be. Rupert’s love for art and storytelling made him the perfect director for this.”
Sanders was already very familiar with the first Ghost in the Shell anime feature, which he lauds as a milestone in the history of modern cinema for the way it blends a quintessentially Japanese milieu with popular science-fiction tropes. “The grown-up animation is pretty spectacular,” says the director. “It set the standard for a futuristic global aesthetic. The character of Major is fundamentally exciting — she’s so powerful and sexual. She’s a human and she’s a machine. The mix of all these elements was very intoxicating to me as a filmmaker.”
Not long after Sanders officially signed on to the project in January 2014 he presented the producers with an original 110-page graphic novel to lay out his take on the film. “I wanted to return to the original world of Ghost in the Shell,” he explains. “The visual language of the manga really caught my imagination, so I used many images from the original in that rough collage of the story.”
Ghost In The Shell is unprecedentedly popular in Japan, but many people in America and around the world have also seen and loved the anime. “The imagery really strikes a nerve,” says Sanders. “Those images became the cornerstone for us in developing the movie. We didn’t reinvent it from the ground up, but we also didn’t copy it frame for frame.”
Well aware that fans of the beloved franchise will come to it with high expectations, the filmmakers have gone to great pains to try and not just meet but exceed them. “Not all of the conventions of manga or anime translate directly to live-action photography, but we tried to stay faithful to the spirit, while bringing it into a new realm,” says executive producer Silver. “When you’re working with a property that has a global fan base, you really have to honor those fans and give them everything they expect — and then something on top of that.”
Sanders’ intention was always to build a bigger film around the source material, while honoring the heart and philosophical essence as well as the iconic images that have made the story universally popular. “We kept the Geisha as our opening sequence,” he says. “We kept the trash truck. We kept some of the Hanka Corporation, and many, many little things that as a fan I was obsessed with. Sanders preserved many of the iconic elements of the original. Although there are conversations about humanity, technology, and dualism, our film is primarily a journey of discovery told through a fairly straightforward detective story. Major is after a bad guy, which leads to the question, who is this guy? What’s he taking and why is he taking it? But as she goes down this road, she starts to understand that her path and his path are closer than she thought.”
One of the challenges the filmmakers faced was ensuring that key story elements are clear to viewers who may not be familiar with the source material. “We took the time to develop it so audiences could connect to questions surrounding the impact of technology,” says Ari Arad.
In a world where human beings can be implanted with cybernetic enhancements ranging from precision eyesight to telepathic communication to an increased capacity for alcohol consumption, hacking becomes a new and even more serious threat. “That’s not a huge leap from what a smart phone, an advanced hearing aid or state-of-the art pacemaker can offer today,” observes Avi Arad. “Technology to improve our physical well-being already exists in medicine. Amazing things are happening. But if world-changing technology falls into the wrong hands, it can cause a lot of destruction.”
In the future of Ghost in the Shell, criminals can not only get into your bank account, they can access your memories and control your behavior. Policing these cyber-terrorists requires a new kind of law enforcement. The elite Section 9 anti-terrorism squad is comprised of some of the world’s most technologically enhanced people, including Major. “In a world where information is king, the key to survival is protecting privacy,” explains producer Michael Costigan. “That’s where Section 9 comes in.”
Everyone involved in the film felt a tremendous responsibility to maintain the integrity of the franchise. Throughout the writing, development and shooting of the movie, the filmmakers referred back to the manga and the anime for inspiration. In addition, Mamoru Oshii, director of the two animated features, and Kenji Kamiyama, director of the television series, were invited to visit the set during filming in Hong Kong.
“Rupert has made his own version of this story,” says Oshii. “This is the most gorgeous film made in the series so far. Rupert starts with compositions, colors and lighting ideas. As a director myself, I believe it’s best for the director to do what he envisions, so I wished that for Rupert. Scarlett Johansson has gone above and beyond my expectations for the role of Major.”
Maki Terashima-Furuta, vice president of production for I.G. USA, which produced the Japanese Ghost in the Shell anime films and television series, adds: “I feel a deep respect for the film Rupert is directing. Ghost in the Shell was such a groundbreaker in its time and people are still mesmerized by it, even 20 years after it was first produced. I’m sure there will be more of this franchise.”
Sanders is proud to be part of the continuing Ghost in the Shell legacy. “We all felt it was important for us to become part of that culture,” he says. “We had someone from Japan with us the whole time we were shooting the film. We wanted to be a part of this line of storytellers, and we wanted them to be a part of our project.”
CASTING A WORLDWIDE NET
A key element of Sanders’ vision for the film was creating a multicultural, multi-ethnic future world, an idea which is clearly reflected in the casting choices he has made. The ensemble features actors from countries from around the globe, including Japan, New Zealand, Australia, France, England, United States, Canada, Zimbabwe, Denmark, Singapore, Poland, Turkey, Fiji, China, Romania and Belgium.
Leading this highly diverse international cast is Scarlett Johansson as Major. Johansson brings the central character an inner life that Sanders felt was largely absent in her animated incarnation. “In the anime, the Major is quite distant and that’s beguiling and mysterious,” he says. “But with this film, we need to understand what she’s going through. Our story brings the audience into what is happening with her internally and allows the character to grow.
“Scarlett brought a childlike quality to the character, which is very important because this is a Pinocchio story in a way,” the director continues. “Scarlett’s very clever at allowing us little moments where we’re able to get into the character, then she pushes us away again. To me, Scarlett is the cyberpunk queen.”
Producer Ari Arad notes that of all the film’s characters, Major is the one whose life has been transformed the most by technology. “She revels in being the most extraordinary person in the world, but at the same time you get a real sense of the weight that she carries. Scarlett perfectly captures Major’s emotion, humor and intensity.”
Fighting cyberterrorism unexpectedly puts Major on a path to self-discovery, says Johansson. “Rupert and I talked a lot about her quest for self-identity and the need to know the truth about where she came from. This character comes to believe that she has both a life she’s been given, and a life that she chooses. That’s the real reason I wanted to do this film. Finding one’s true identity, the feeling of isolation that is part of the human experience, as well as the connection that we all share — these are always relevant themes.”
The actress was also drawn to the extraordinary visuals Sanders developed for the film. “That’s what clinched the deal for me,” says Johansson. “What he has created is not just an homage for the fans. There’s a new feeling to this film. It’s not the pristine future that we sometimes imagine. Humanity has engulfed itself, like a snake eating its tail. Cities are built upon cities, people made out of other people and computers.”
Costigan says that Johansson was the only actress he ever envisioned in the role. “This character has to have humanity and yet also this otherness to her,” says the producer. “She has to both connect with the audience and keep them at a distance. We could not think of anyone other than Scarlett who could do that. We really campaigned to get her into the film.”
Mamoru Oshii, who directed the Ghost in the Shell anime, praises the actress for her ability to portray a character whose mind and body are not in synch. “Major has a fierce, combative side, but she is also plagued by insecurity. She’s not entirely human, but not a robot either. Scarlett can say so much with her eyes. She is so close to my original vision for the character. This role was for her, and nobody else could have played it.”
Danish actor Pilou Asbæk was cast as Batou, Major’s second-in-command. The filmmakers had seen his work in the Danish films A Hijacking and A War, which was nominated for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®. “We knew Pilou’s European films, but this performance has been a revelation,” says Costigan. “Discovering qualities in an actor that you haven’t seen before is one of the things that makes moviemaking exciting.”
Asbæk’s imposing physicality is perfect for the tough-as-nails soldier, according to Sanders. “When I first sat down with Pilou, I knew he was Batou,” the director says. “He’s got this great gruff sense of humor and is perfectly bear-like, but with a sensitivity that I really felt Batou needed. Like other members of Section 9, Batou is cyber-enhanced, but not to the same degree as Major. She became a cyborg instantly, while Batou is gradually losing bits of his humanity. Every time he gets another injury, something else is replaced.”
Batou generally prefers to let his fists do the talking, according to Asbæk, “He’s a close-combat expert, a killer, but in my humble opinion, he is also the heart and soul of Ghost in the Shell,” says the actor, who is known to fans of the Danish political drama series “Borgen” as spin doctor Kasper Juul. “He eats pizza, drinks beer and loves dogs. These are things that I personally relate to and I hope the audience will as well. Basically, he’s a simple guy: trustworthy, warm and sweet.”
That attitude brings an unexpected lightness to an otherwise serious action role, says Silver. “You expect him to be pure tough guy, but he plays Batou with a twinkle in his cybernetic eye.”
Batou is one of the few people with whom Major can let down her guard. “Scarlett and Pilou are so great together on screen,” says Sanders. “Their partnership is a very beautiful relationship, almost the classic unrequited love. He understands her, because he’s been through a lot of pain himself. She is a cyborg, so they can’t have a physical relationship, but he is her protector. Any love story is left unspoken, as it is in the manga.”
Johansson agrees that Major’s relationship with Batou is special. “When she is with him, it’s the most human she feels,” says the actress. “She doesn’t trust many people. With Batou, she can share some quiet moments. He reminds her of the life that could be and that she perhaps once had.”
To play Daisuke Aramaki, the soft-spoken head of Section 9, the filmmakers chose Japanese icon “Beat” Takeshi Kitano, a comedian, actor, movie director, writer and game designer better known by his stage name, Beat Takeshi. Fiercely loyal to the members of his team, Aramaki will put his own career on the line to ensure their survival. He also serves as a mentor and surrogate father to Major.
Sanders grew up admiring Kitano’s work both as an actor and a director. “He was one of the first people I wanted to bring into the project,” he says. “I didn’t want Aramaki to be a non-active member of the group. He is one of the toughest of the lot and has gone through his own wars and battles. He still rocks an old-school revolver. He’s the patriarch to this strange and dysfunctional family that is Section 9.”
Kitano says he was drawn to the opportunity to do something that was at once Japanese at its core, yet international in its appeal. “The original material has been very popular,” he says. “People have been anticipating a live-action adaptation for years. Rupert had the stamina and tenacity to make that happen. His persistence makes him a world-class director.”
Sanders is equally effusive about Kitano’s Hollywood film acting debut. “Takeshi was a dream to work with,” he says. “He is an incredible actor who understands the power of his capabilities. He’s not flashy. He’s really minimal but he has got a look that’s terrifying. And then he switches that off and becomes a funny, warm and gentle guy.”
With limited English skills, the actor preferred speaking Japanese on set and delivers most of his lines in his native language, which fit neatly into a key piece of technology in the story. When on missions, all the members of Section 9 communicate telepathically and remotely via an implanted enhancement known as mind-comm. “The mind-comms let me speak in Japanese and let the others understand instantly in their own languages,” Kitano explains. “That would be very convenient to be able to do.”
The character of Dr. Ouelet, a leading Hanka Corporation scientist and Major’s creator, was a man in previous iterations of the franchise, but Sanders felt it was important to emphasize the character’s maternal side. “Dr. Ouelet is really the mother of the Major,” say the director. “She built her. Something about that really stuck with me. Dr. Ouelet is impassioned about trying to save humanity. She believes that we won’t exist if we don’t evolve beyond our mortal human forms. Unfortunately, her work is funded by the military, which has other motives.”
Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche, who plays Dr. Ouelet, admits to being a bit baffled when she was initially approached by Sanders. “Science fiction is not my world, but my children pushed me to do the film,” she says. “When I read the script the first time, I didn’t understand anything, because it’s really a world inside a world. It’s like when you read Shakespeare for the first time, you don’t understand anything. When you learn some of the words and references, then it becomes fun and exciting.”
Binoche impressed the filmmakers with her curiosity, says Costigan. “She asked a lot of hard questions about her character — why she would do certain things, why she would hold these secrets and what her own morality was in the story. Questions like that only come from an actor who is not afraid to dive deep into a role.”
In just a handful of scenes, Binoche manages to make an indelible impression. “In all the moments with Scarlett, there was trust and fun and hard work,” says the actress. “Scarlett has the ability to adapt herself to any situation. You see something going through her eyes that indicates she wants to believe that she’s a human being. You see how much I care for her, but also that there’s a limit to the game we’re playing.”
Working for the Hanka Corporation has given the doctor many advantages in her work, but there is a steep price to pay. “Her intentions were good, but she has married the devil,” Binoche says. “Her scientific mind is so ambitious that she forgets the human side of herself. Scientists exist in the world they’re creating. The consequences are not always immediately obvious.”
Early in the film, Major is assigned to find and terminate Kuze, the mastermind behind a bold attack on a high-ranking Hanka Corporation executive. A brilliant hacker out for revenge against the people he believes have wronged him, Kuze is willing to sacrifice anyone who gets in his way. Played by Michael Carmen Pitt, Kuze oozes menace and rage, but also vulnerability.
“Michael Carmen Pitt is a true artist,” says Sanders. “I’ve known him for many years as a friend. He’s very independent minded and exists solely in that artist’s world.”
Pitt says he appreciated the ambitious nature of the project and the enduring relevance of the source material. “The manga has been extremely influential in Hollywood movies, graphic art, tattooing and industrial music,” says Pitt. “I saw the first animated film on VHS when I was maybe 14 or 15 years old. I had never seen anything like it. While I was preparing, I re-watched the original film and was really surprised by how current it still is. The world is complicated, scary, extremely exciting and full of evil and full of good — like the world we live in.”
Kuze is a composite character drawn from several elements of the Ghost in the Shell universe that served as a jumping off point for an intriguing, challenging antagonist for Major. “Is he truly a villain?” asks Pitt. “I don’t know. That’s one of the unique and interesting things about the script. I worked a lot on how he would speak and made some rules for myself about the way he could move. I wrote pages and pages and pages of backstory. He is such a strange character that I just didn’t know any other way to do it.”
Pitt arrived on set fully immersed in the physicality and violence of the character, according to Sanders. “By the time he started filming, he’d been eating raw food for months. He was doing boxing and Pilates every day. Not only was he whippet thin and ripped, he had developed a very in-depth character. He built himself a little house in a shipping container on the back lot, where he had a punching bag and an ashtray. He filled notebooks with painting after painting after painting about Kuze. It’s a master class watching him.”
Audiences may be startled by Pitt’s transformation, warns Silver. “Michael brings a phenomenal depth to Kuze. You’re not quite sure what he is. He alters the pitch of his voice, his eyes, his hair – everything about him is on the edge.”
Pitt’s hope for the film is that it will be an entertaining and exciting movie that also touches the audience. “It has the potential to move people because it’s about someone who is figuring out who she is, what it means to be human, and then ultimately deciding to fight for that humanity.”
Joining Johansson and Asbæk is an ensemble of five actors who fill out the unruly bunch of skilled operatives known as Section 9. The equivalent of an elite SEAL team that deals in urban cyber terror, they have been chosen for their unique skill sets and specific enhancements. “We put together a phenomenal group to play this rough-and-tumble, ragtag team,” says Silver. “They each bring incredible energy. They’re internationally based and very exciting to watch in action.”
Singapore native Chin Han portrays former cop Togusa. “I loved the manga as a child,” says Chin Han, named one of Asia’s 25 Greatest Actors by CNN. “Togusa was my favorite character. He is the only member of the team that has no cyber-enhancements, so he’s suspicious of technology and always carries a very distinctive Mateba revolver. He also relies on old-school techniques for investigation.”
Togusa and Batou play with the classic good cop-bad cop dynamic as they rely on each other frequently to solve crimes. “Pilou has brought a great sense of humor and it was really fun shooting with him, not to mention the fact that he has mad pizza-eating skills,” says Chin Han.
Sanders was receptive to the actor’s input in terms of developing a look that would define the character. “We built the character of Togusa from the ground up, piece-by-piece,” says Chin Han. “His hairstyle went through a few different incarnations from neo-romanticism to the mullet. We made specific choices about how he was dressed that reflect his old-school way of thinking. He wears an old Casio watch with a calculator on it.”
British actress and singer Danusia Samal makes her motion-picture debut as Ladriya, the only female team member other than Major. “Ladriya doesn’t exist in any of the previous Ghost in the Shell entries,” says Samal. “I worked with Rupert, and the makeup and costume teams to find out who she was and what her place is in the group. Rupert likes to use the qualities that actors naturally bring into the parts, so I use my own accent. That poses a question about her history: how did this little, rude, cheeky girl from London end up in Section 9?”
Ladriya retains her sense of humor under fire but when it comes down to it, she will shoot first and ask questions later, says Samal. “She is small, crafty and fast. She is the one who can sneak in anywhere on a mission. She’s good at knife combat. She gets in and gets the job done against enemy threats very quickly.”
Lasarus Ratuere, a native of Sydney, plays information-technology expert Ishikawa. “His expertise is in hacking and manipulating information,” explains Ratuere. “He’s very good at deciphering code. Given the technologically based world that they’re in, his skills are heavily relied upon. But as a collective, we’re all very good at the problem solving. When Section 9 is all together, we’re a pretty formidable force.”
Ratuere relished the experience of being part of the close-knit group. “With all the daily training and our living arrangements, we were with each other every day,” says the actor. “It was easy to just knock on someone’s door and go to dinner. That constant time together took the chemistry to a different level, which shows on screen.”
Yutaka Izumihara, plays Saito, the sniper specialist. “Saito was a mercenary,” says the Australian performer of Japanese descent. “He has a hawk eye, which is connected to a satellite. The prosthetic makeup takes about an hour to put on and around 30 minutes to take off. It’s a bit itchy, and the process requires me to be still, which is good preparation. As a sniper, I have to be still and calm and in control.”
The role gave Izumihara an opportunity to meet several of his idols, including Mamoru Oshii, director of both Ghost in the Shell animated feature films, Kenji Kamiyama, director of the television series, and “Beat” Takeshi Kitano. “Growing up in Japan, I loved the anime,” says Izumihara. “It talked about the future of our society and new technologies, but also about the mind and the spirit. Japanese people are really proud of it.”
Tawanda Manyimo, who is originally from Zimbabwe but now lives in New Zealand, plays Borma, the team’s security and explosives expert. “Borma served in the Japanese defense forces, and I like to think that he leads from the back,” says Manyimo. “He is a big boy with incredible strength. He and Batou are the biggest guys in Section 9. He’s a soldier with a mechanized body, so he plugs in and recharges, just like Major. There’s a steady rhythm about him, even in the way he speaks. He’s also got the biggest gun.”
Even though Section 9 takes on some of the most dangerous and sinister forces in the world, they manage to keep things light, says Manyimo. “Section 9, in a sense, is almost a rogue operation,” he adds. “We can cut through red tape and get the job done fast.”
Finding the right cast for a multi-national, multicultural project like Ghost in the Shell was challenging to accomplish, according to Costigan. “I’ve never before seen a cast of talented men and women that is this diverse. We went all over the world. No one slept because we were casting from New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Europe, as well as America. The benefit was we really got the best of all worlds.”
ENVISIONING THE FUTURE
Ghost in the Shell was filmed primarily in Wellington, New Zealand, with additional shooting in Hong King and Shanghai. Home to one of the most sophisticated film and television production industries on the planet, New Zealand is best known for hosting Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchises, international blockbusters including The Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Fantastic Four and Avatar, and more intimate productions such as The Piano and the television series “Top of the Lake.”
New Zealand provided the filmmakers with an ideal production situation, combining stunning, diverse scenery with state-of-the-art soundstages and post-production facilities, world-renowned crews and cutting-edge digital and visual-effects companies.
“New Zealand is the most beautiful place and the film crews are incredibly hard working,” says producer Avi Arad. “They love what they do and are tops on a technical level. Most important for us, they were all coming from the geek universe. They felt making this film was a privilege, just like we do.”
The filmmakers had already begun working with the design team at the renowned WETA Workshop in Wellington long before deciding to shoot in New Zealand. WETA co-founder Sir Richard Taylor says that while it is understandable that people think first of Lord of the Rings when they think about New Zealand, a love for filmmaking of any genre runs deep in the community. “It’s about the passion and skill that the crew throws into their endeavors,” he says. “The extraordinary array of opportunities available in the New Zealand film industry are being recognized worldwide. This film aptly represents the incredible skills of the technicians in the city.”
Most of the live-action filming took place at Stone Street Studios, state-of-the-art production facilities built by Peter Jackson in the heart of Wellington that allowed him to attend to every aspect of the filmmaking process without ever having to get in a car. “He found an abandoned paint factory for the first Lord of the Rings and built one sound stage,” explains Sanders. “Since then, he has constructed a terrific world here. My director of photography Jess Hall and I could walk to work at Stone Street Studios and Park Road Post, where we viewed dailies, or WETA Workshop, where we did a lot of design work and built many practical elements.”
When he arrived on set in August 2015, Costigan says he wasn’t quite sure what to expect. To mark the start of production, a welcome ceremony and native blessing were performed for the cast and filmmakers at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand in Wellington. “The mystery of Wellington began unfolding pretty quickly,” says the producer. “On a movie this size, where everybody has to be in constant communication, being essentially under one roof was a giant boon.”
Like the cast, the world-class team of filmmakers assembled to create this film came from all over the globe, including the U.K., Jamaica, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, the United States, New Zealand and beyond. “A great director attracts brilliant collaborators and department heads,” says Ari Arad. “When Rupert threw down the creative gauntlet, they picked it up and pushed beyond anything we hoped for.”
Production designer Jan Roelfs worked with supervising art director Richard L. Johnson and approximately 250 people from around the world whose work Sanders had admired. “Jan understands story very well and he has a strong minimalist aesthetic,” says the director. “In every scene, you feel like you go someplace different — even the buttons on Section 9’s uniforms are designed to serve the story. That’s a testament to what Jan did with a very tight budget.”
In addition to the manga and anime versions of Ghost and the Shell, Sanders and Roelfs drew inspiration from a wide array of sources, including the films of Stanley Kubrick and late-’80s-early-’90s design elements. “They went back to films, images and even London’s The Face magazine from the ’80s,” says Costigan. “Rupert uses a very specific, layered visual approach. From the beginning, he felt that so much science-fiction cinema is set in a post-apocalyptic, dark blue and gray, de-saturated world, but he saw it quite differently. This is a tactile world full of color that reflects Major’s personal story about hope and possibility. This is a future that you want to live in, so there’s a wish-fulfillment quality.”
A scouting trip to Hong Kong months before filming began provided additional ideas. A modern city where ancient traditions meet contemporary high finance, Hong Kong provided a template for the film’s unidentified metropolis with its dazzling skyline and pockets of gritty urban decay.
The film is set in a Pan-Asian, international world of many creeds, races and religions, according to Sanders. “We’re not in Japan and we’re not in China. We’ve made a future metropolis that has an Asian feel with Western and Arabic influences. People from all over the world end up in a big city, and the street advertising illustrates the mishmash of cultures that we will all become.”
“Rupert is very conscious of architecture, and particular about props and textural details,” says Johnson. “From our trip to Hong Kong, we incorporated tiled walls and bamboo scaffolding. The unnamed city that is a part old-world and part new-world, mixture of the future and the past. It’s a retro future in a way with ’70s and ’80s cars, and ’90s machine guns. There’s no exact date, it’s almost a parallel universe.”
Sanders and director of photography Jess Hall first met as students at London’s prestigious Central Saint Martin’s art school. Hall spent two years researching and developing techniques to capture the world Sanders envisioned. “I was fortunate enough to be involved right from the beginning with Rupert,” says the cinematographer, whose previous credits range from Hot Fuzz to Brideshead Revisited. “That provided ample time to develop a number of new techniques. I created a visual language, customized a color palette, and developed custom lenses and lighting to achieving a look that honors the anime. The anime’s color palette was extremely subtle and sophisticated. I selected a custom palette of largely secondary colors, which you don’t often see in cinema.”
To achieve the color palette, he used LED light sources controlled by a six-channel mixing board. “It was very efficient, he says. “I could call the colors up on a touch screen and vary the intensity. It was a wonderful tool that gave the film a visual unity.”
Hall found most digital cameras too sharp to capture the painterly quality of anime and worked with Panavision to handcraft custom lenses for the Arri Alexa 65. “We’re using quite wide-angle lenses with a compressed perspective so we don’t have a lot of distortion, which also is an anime thing. They also render softer, subtler colors that I really liked.”
For the artists at WETA Workshop, many of whom are fans of the manga, the animated films and the television series, Ghost in the Shell was a dream project. “When discussing any futuristic film in the workshop, we always reference this particular world,” says Taylor, creative director for the world-renowned design and fabrication house. As artists and fans, we just had to play some part in this project.”
When Sanders invited them to Los Angeles to meet, Taylor jumped in, he says, “boots and all.” “Rupert’s references were inspired by the original work,” he notes. “Our design team embraced that wholeheartedly because that material has been so inspirational to so many of them. The opportunity to lift the characters out of the anime and create them as living breathing characters for a live-action movie, was an opportunity beyond our wildest imagination.”
Sanders was an ideal collaborator, says Taylor, allowing WETA Workshop to weigh in not only on the design and creation of the film’s extensive prosthetics, but also to offer conceptual ideas at an early story-writing level. WETA Workshop’s contributions eventually came to include overall design and story development; design, fabrication and on-set operation of key practical mechanical effects, special makeup effects and prosthetics for many characters; and miniatures of the city, as well as to contributing to the design and manufacturing of Major’s signature thermoptic suit.
“Sir Richard Taylor is one of the few people in filmmaking that crosses over into technology, science and art,” Sanders says. “I don’t use this word lightly, but he is a genius. I really wanted to be involved with him and his team of like-minded, artistic, scientific, and gifted people.”
The finished film will be a thrilling ride even for viewers coming to this material for the first time, says Taylor. “They are going to see a unique, dynamic world filled with compelling characters. Making this film required such a depth of execution because of how intensely people love the source material and how significant it is in the zeitgeist, not just of the Japanese culture, but all over the world. It’s our hope is that this film becomes a seminal work for this generation. It may inspire some, it may terrify others, but it will be extraordinary.”
Ghost in the Shell’s costumes are designed by Kurt and Bart, the award-winning team responsible for films as diverse as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Parts 1 and 2, and Dallas Buyers Club. “I wanted a designer who came from street fashion,” says Sanders. “I wanted to understand the world by seeing groups of people like you do in real life. Everyone doesn’t just wear the same thing.”
While the clothing in the original anime is distinctly 1980s, Sanders wanted to make sure this film did not look frozen in a bygone era. “It was important to Rupert to bring the look into the now and have it be relatable,” says Kurt Swanson. “He loves classic sci-fi films, so that was our springboard.”
“We looked at stylized versions of the future from ’70s science fiction,” adds his partner Bart Mueller. “Rupert is hands-on in every aspect, especially from a visual standpoint. Even before our seven-month prep in New Zealand began, I’d wake up at three in the morning to texts from him with links to imagery. He’s constantly feeding his team inspiration.”
The majority of the men’s suits were made by a company called Rembrandt, the last and oldest suit maker in New Zealand. “They were great to collaborate with because a lot of the things we were doing used non-traditional materials, says Swanson. “We made some suits out of old obi materials and old kimono fabrics. They were great about rolling with where we were going, and then helping us to produce many pieces in a short time. They were an incredible resource.”
The element that fans will be most anxious to see might be Major’s signature thermoptic suit — a second skin that allows her to become invisible. Designed by Kurt and Bart with WETA Workshop, the suit is a result of months of research and development. “They spent countless hours thinking about what it should look like and how to build it,” says Costigan. “Seeing her go invisible and then come back when she chooses makes these action scenes even more exciting. It had to be highly functional and based in reality, so Kurt and Bart researched high-tech fabrics that are just becoming available.”
As many superhero suits as WETA has made for other projects, they had never done a full silicone suit like this. “Richard said it’s never been done that he knew of, so this really is a new technology for a costume,” says Swanson. “The suit performed really well, it looks really beautiful and Scarlett is striking wearing it.”
Makeup and hair designer Jane O’Kane and her team were responsible for applying the myriad prosthetics used in the film. “Under Rupert’s directives, we worked very closely with WETA Workshop, which designed and manufactured all the prosthetics,” she says. “There’s almost no character in this world that doesn’t have some form of prosthetic or prop-built augmentation. We made up literally thousands of background extras in addition to the principals. For the street scenes in Hong Kong, we had a group of 120 for each of the last few days, each with an extensive hair and makeup look. It was pretty epic.”
Many of the film’s guns-blazing, acrobatic scenes were filmed by second-unit director Guy Norris, a veteran of the stunt world, whose recent work includes the acclaimed Mad Max: Fury Road. “I was thrilled when Guy Norris was hired,” says cinematographer Hall. “The kinetic momentum of Mad Max: Fury Road is extraordinary. We started talking about how to do something original with the action by integrating longer takes that felt 100 percent like Scarlett was executing these moves.”
One of the big challenges Norris and his team faced was that the rules of Ghost in the Shell’s future world are very different from a contemporary action piece. “Our enhanced characters, especially Major, can do so much more than a regular human,” he explains. “She can run faster, jump higher, and fight better, but not in a superhero sense.”
Scarlett Johansson spent more that a year preparing for the role, one of the most grueling of her career. “The physicality for Major has been challenging to create,” she acknowledges. “But it wouldn’t be Ghost in the Shell without crazy fight sequences and gunplay. Those scenes were exhausting and empowering at the same time. I learned to handle the weapons, complete every fight and do all the wire work with the support of the stunt team. The physicality is such an important part of this character, so I was really married to the idea of being able to do everything.”
The actress began working on specific fighting skills with martial arts expert and fight trainer Richard Norton in New York and Los Angeles several months before filming began. “My job was to demystify the specific fight moves as much as I could for Scarlett,” says Norton. “I see what an individual actor can do, teach them some choreography, and help with the tools needed within the fights.”
She became an expert at pulling punches millimeters away from her adversary, says Sanders. “It’s terrifying to watch. She found the hidden anger and the hidden humanity of Major. She’s also one of the few people who can fire a full clip of an automatic machine gun without closing her eyes.”
Functionality was the most important priority for the weapons used by Section 9, which all fired blank ammunition to preserve the muzzle flash. Most were slightly modified to give them a more futuristic feel. Major’s thermoptic pistol is based on the Glock 17, 9mm with some enhancements. Batou carries a prototype Kripes Precision shotgun and the sub-machine gun carried by the Section 9 fighters is based on a Hicker & Cock MP-5K. Aramaki carries an antique Smith & Wesson revolver in a custom holster adorned with the samurai cherry-tree blossom design.
Underpinning the action is composer Clint Mansell’s score, in which a simple melody evolves throughout Major’s journey of discovery. “I felt we needed a score that would help us understand what’s going on with her emotionally,” says Sanders. “Some of Clint’s most successful work does exactly that. Clint’s a brave composer and this score expands the universe of the film. This film needed that original voice and someone who wasn’t really that concerned about the rulebook.”
Ghost in the Shell was a difficult story to film, says Sanders, but also gave him an opportunity to bring a world he has fallen in love with to the big screen. “I’m an adult with a teenage sensibility,” he admits. “Ghost in the Shell really captured my imagination. I had waited a long time to find the right next project, because making films is a big undertaking. You live and breathe it every day, so I needed to choose a journey that I really wanted to go on.”
Ultimately, Ghost in the Shell is a story about how people may have to change to survive in the future, according to Ari Arad. “Technology is already penetrating our lives in different ways. Here we are literally mixing man and machine together. But however little of Major’s original physical self is left, she is still profoundly human. Rather than a story about fearing the future, it is a film about finding a way through a complicated future.”
Sanders saw an even broader message in the idea that as hard as they try, the Hanka Corporation scientists’ can’t destroy Major’s humanity. “Technology can’t just override the soul. Our self will still exist in some form. Major’s character goes through a subtle metamorphosis, a process of understanding and coming to terms with whatever’s happened to her, the good and the bad. There’s a really strong message in that and I wanted to put it out there: Whoever we are and whatever’s happened to us, that is what has forged us. That is our strength and that is our power.”
ABOUT THE CAST
Tony and BAFTA winner and four-time Golden Globe nominee SCARLETT JOHANSSON (“Major”) is set to play the lead role of the Major in the upcoming Ghost in the Shell, a live-action adaptation of the original Japanese manga, set for release on March 31, 2017. She will also star alongside Kate McKinnon and Zoe Kravitz in the R-rated comedy, Rock That Body, in theaters June 16, 2017. In 2016, she reprised her role as ‘Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow’ in Captain America: Civil War, voiced the python ‘Kaa’ in Disney’s live action/CGI animation adaptation of The Jungle Book from Jon Favreau and starred in the latest Coen Brothers film Hail, Caesar! She was most recently seen lending her voice to the computer-animated musical comedy film Sing where she plays punk-rocking porcupine Ash. She is currently the highest-grossing actress of all time and highest grossing actor of 2016, with her films making over $1.2 billion that year and $3.6 billion overall.
She starred in the global blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron, which has grossed over 1.4 billion worldwide and played the title role of Luc Besson’s successful action-thriller Lucy and in Jonathan Glazer’s sci-fi art film Under the Skin. She also lent her voice to Spike Jonze’s critically acclaimed sci-fi romance Her, playing the role of operating system ‘Samantha,’ which earned her a Best Actress award at the Rome Film Festival.
Johansson received rave reviews and the Upstream Prize for Best Actress in the Controcorrente section at the Venice Film Festival for her starring role opposite Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, the critically-acclaimed second film by director Sofia Coppola. She also won a Tony for her Broadway debut in the Arthur Miller play “A View from a Bridge” opposite Liev Schreiber. She wrapped her second run on Broadway as ‘Maggie’ in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in 2013.
At the age of 12, Johansson attained worldwide recognition for her performance as Grace Maclean, the teen traumatized by a riding accident in Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer. She went on to star in Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World, garnering a “Best Supporting Actress” award from the Toronto Film Critics Circle. Johansson was also featured in the Coen Brothers’ dark drama The Man Who Wasn’t There, opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Frances McDormand.
Her other film credits include: Jon Favreau’s Chef, The Avengers, Don Jon opposite Joseph Gordon Levitt, Hitchcock opposite Anthony Hopkins; We Bought A Zoo for Cameron Crowe; the box office hit Iron Man 2; the Weitz brothers’ film In Good Company, as well as opposite John Travolta in A Love Song for Bobby Long, which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination (her third in two years.) and Woody Allen’s Match Point, which garnered her 4th consecutive Golden Globe nominee in three years. Other film credits include He’s Just Not That Into You, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Spirit, Girl with a Pearl Earring, opposite Colin Firth; The Island opposite Ewan McGregor; Brian DePalma’s The Black Dahlia; Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, and The Nanny Diaries.
Her additional credits include Rob Reiner’s comedy North; the thriller Just Cause, with Sean Connery and Laurence Fishburne; and a breakthrough role at the age of 10 in the critically-praised Manny & Lo, which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for “Best Female Lead.”
A New York native, Johansson made her professional acting debut at the age of eight in the off-Broadway production of “Sophistry,” with Ethan Hawke, at New York’s Playwright’s Horizons.
Danish actor Pilou Asbæk (“Batou”) is quickly amassing an impressive resume of diverse roles, fearlessly evolving his body of work with each new project and proving to be one of Hollywood’s most sought after talents in film and television.
Asbæk can next be seen in Rupert Sander’s live-action adaptation of the anime classic GHOST IN A SHELL opposite Scarlett Johansson. The film follows a female special ops cyborg who leads an elite task force called Section 9 for Hanka Robotics. He will star in the leading male role of ‘Batou’, a heavy-duty cyborg and second in command. The Paramount film has been slated for March 31, 2017. Asbæk will also be seen in Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s directorial debut WOODSHOCK opposite Kirsten Dunst, set to release later this year by A24.
He is currently in production for the seventh season of the HBO blockbuster series GAME OF THRONES, which recently became the most awarded scripted series in Emmy history after its record shattering 38th win. He made his debut this past season as the newly elected Lord of the Iron Islands, ‘Euron Greyjoy’.
Last year, Asbæk starred as ‘Pontius Pilate’ in Timur Bekmambetov’s remake of BEN-HUR opposite Jack Huston and Morgan Freeman. This follows his recurrent collaborations with Danish writer-director Tobias Lindholm, including APRIL 9TH, HIJACKING, and the latest A WAR, which received a 2015 Academy Award nomination for “Best Foreign Film”. Asbæk also co-starred in Luc Besson’s smash hit LUCY opposite Scarlett Johansson, which grossed over $460 million worldwide for Universal and Summit.
On the small screen, he is best known for his role as the villainous spin-doctor ‘Kasper Juul’ in the critically acclaimed Danish political drama BORGEN, created by Adam Price. Asbæk also starred in the third and final season of Showtime’s medieval drama THE BORGIAS. This was followed by a leading role in BBC Four’s Scandi-drama miniseries 1864.
Prior, Asbæk starred in severable notable Danish films including: Mikkel Nørgaard’s crime thriller THE ABSENT ONE, Bille August’s powerful family drama SILENT HEART, Niels Arden Oplev’s coming-of-age dramedy SPEED WALKING, Christoffer Boe’s biographical drama SEX, DRUGS & TAXATION, Tobias Lindholm and Michael Noer’s prison drama R and Pernille Fischer Christensen’s drama A FAMILY.
Asbæk was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and graduated from the Danish National School of Theatre.
Born in Tokyo in 1947 and entered show business in 1972 as Beat Takeshi, the stage name he continues to use today as a performer, apart from the name he uses as a film director – TAKESHI KITANO (“Aramaki”). As part of the comic duo Two Beat, Kitano was one of the leading figures in the manzai (stand-up comedy) boom in the late 1970s. With his distinctive art of speech and his idiosyncratic perspective, Kitano became one of the most popular entertainers in the country during the 1980s.
As an actor, Kitano won international acclaim for his role in Nagisa Oshima’s MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR.LAWRENCE (83). He collaborated again with Oshima in 1999’s samurai epic TABOO (Gohatto). He can be seen in the best-selling novel adaptation, Yoichi Sai’s BLOOD AND BONES (04) and in Kinji Fukasaku’s controversial 2001 Japanese box-office smash BATTLE ROYALE, and subsequently in its sequel, Kenta and Kinji Fukasaku’s BATTLE ROYAL II (03). His acting filmography also includes Robert Longo’s JOHNNY MNEMONIC (US, 95) and Jean-Pierre Limosin’s TOKYO EYES (France, 98).Kitano launched his directorial career with VIOLENT COP (89), where he also stars as an actor. He continuously made directorial films in the following years; BOILING POINT (90), A SCENE AT THE SEA (91), SONATINE(93), GETTING ANY? (95) and KIDS RETURN (96). He gained acclaim as a filmmaker with HANA-BI, the winner of the Golden Lion Award (Best Film) in 1997’s Venice International Film Festival, which garnered him numerous domestic and international awards. He followed it up with his first film in Cannes International Film Festival competition, KIKUJIRO (99), an internationally co-produced action film, BROTHER (01) and Dolls (02). His first period piece, ZATOICHI (03) won him the Silver Lion Award (Best Director), again at Venice International Film Festival. His next three films were a self-reflective trilogy in which he projected his own artistic persona; TAKESHIS’ (05), GLORY TO THE FILMMAKER! (07) and ACHILLES AND THE TORTOISE (08). After the release of TAKESHIS’, Kitano was presented with the Special Culture Award of the 10th Galileo 2000 Awards in Italy. In 2007, Kitano directed a short film, ONE FINE DAY for Cannes International Film Festival’s 60th anniversary project “Chacun son cinema.” In the same year, Kitano became the first recipient of the newly created “Glory to the Filmmaker!” Award from Venice International Film Festival, which was established in honor of his thirteenth film title, GLORY TO THE FILMMAKER! He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Moscow International Film Festival (08), and the Honorary Golden Alexander Award at International Thessaloniki Film Festival (08). With OUTRAGE (10) and its sequel, OUTRAGE BEYOND (12), two films of the Japanese underworld, became box office successes. His latest and 17th feature, RYUZO AND HIS SEVEN HENCHMEN (15) was a major commercial success with over 1,300,000 admissions topped only by ZATOICHI. In 2010, he was awarded Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. Simultaneously, the Fondation Cartier in Paris held a one-man exhibition, “Gosse de peintre (the Painter’s Kid),” displaying his paintings and installations under the name of Beat Takeshi Kitano as a multi-faceted persona. The entire exhibition in format had been relocated to Tokyo’s venue two years after the Paris’s exhibition and gained the widespread and enthusiastic support not only from the gallery goers but general public as well. In 2015, he received Honorary Chamberlain from the Ordre des Conteaux de Champagne as the first personality out of France to accept this distinction. In 2016, the French government awarded him the Officier of the Legion of Honor for his extraordinary achievements in arts.
Kitano is currently active in acting, appearing in weekly variety programs on television and writing essays; he also conducts semi-annual comedy gigs in Tokyo, which tickets immediately sellout.
JULIETTE BINOCHE (“Dr. Ouelet”) is a Parisian-born actress, artist and dancer who received the Academy Award®, BAFTA, and European Film Award, for her turn in the 1996 film “The English Patient.” Binoche also holds the unique distinction of being the only female to win Best Actress honors in all three main European Film Festivals—the Palme d’Or at Cannes for “Certified Copy” (2010), both the Volpi Cup and Pasinetti Award at Venice for “Three Colors: Blue” (1993), and Berlin’s Silver Bear for “The English Patient” (1996).
Some of her most prominent film roles include “Chocolat” with Johnny Depp (earning her second Academy Award® nomination), “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, “Wuthering Heights” with Ralph Fiennes, “Dan in Real Life” with Steve Carell, and the 2014 blockbuster “Godzilla”, which raked in over $500 million worldwide at the box office. She was recently seen in “Clouds of Sils Maria” (2015) opposite Kristen Stewart, and was last seen in “The 33” (November 2015) with Antonio Banderas, which is based on the real events of the 2010 mining disaster.
In addition to her film work with remarquable directors such as Godard, Kieslowski, Haneke, Kiarustami, Carax etc, Binoche has frequently returned to the theater, with credits that include the 1988 production of Chekov’s “The Seagull,” directed by Andrei Konchalovsky at the Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris; “Naked” at the Almeida Theatre in London; the 2012 modernized version of August Strindberg’s classic play “Miss Julie” at London’s Barbican; dancer Akram Khan’s 2008 dance-drama piece called “in-i” at the Royal National Theatre in London; and her Broadway debut in Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” opposite Liev Schreiber and John Slattery, for which she earned a 2001 Tony® nomination as Best Actress.
In 2015 Binoche traveled throughout Europe and the United States in the title role of Sophocles’ “Antigone,” directed by Ivo van Hove with a new translation by award-winning poet Anne Carson. The production, which premiered at Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, was a co-production with the Barbican London, in association with the Toneelgroep Amsterdam. Juliette has just finished her last film in February 2017 in Paris with the direcor Claire Denis with Gérard Depardieu.
MICHAEL PITT (“Kuze”) is an American actor, writer, director, producer, and musician. He is best known for his gripping and unforgettable performances, working with some of the most talented filmmakers, such as Academy Award® and Palme d’Or Winners: Martin Scorsese, Gus Van Sant, Bernardo Bertolucci, Michael Haneke and Larry Clark.
Pitt recently starred in Martin Scorsese’s Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning HBO series “Boardwalk Empire,” playing opposite Steve Buscemi, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Stephen Graham and Kelly MacDonald.
After making his debut on stage, in the Off Broadway production of “The Trestle At Pope Lick Creek,” written by the award winning playwright Naomi Wallace; Pitt played the role of Tommy Speck in John Cameron Mitchell’s Sundance-hit “Hedwig And The Angry Inch,” which took home the best director and the audience awards.
Michael Haneke then cast Pitt in his U.S. remake of “Funny Games,” playing opposite Tim Roth and Naomi Watts. Bernardo Bertolucci cast him in his cult classic film “The Dreamers,” nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Film, playing opposite Eva Green. Gus Van Sant chose Pitt to star and score “Last Days,” nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, inspired by the last days of Kurt Cobain.
After starring in Mike Cahill’s “I Origins” playing opposite Brit Marling and Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Pitt starred, co-wrote, and produced “You Can’t Win.” The latter is directed by Rob Devor, and is based on Jack Black’s underground classic memoir of a transient hobo thief in the early 1900s, who greatly influenced William Burroughs and The Beat Generation.
As a musician, Pitt has produced original music compositions for Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island,” Gut Van Sant’s “Last Days,” Asia Argento’s adaptation of J.T. Leroy’s novel, “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things,” and he recently contributed to the score of Louis Garel’s first feature film “Les Deux Amis”.
Pitt recently wrapped the lead role in Samuel Benchetrit’s “Asphalte” in France as well as the starring role in Jackie Earle Haley’s feature film “Criminal Activities” alongside Dan Stevens and John Travolta and just began shooting Ariel Vromen’s feature “Criminal” opposite Kevin Costner and Ryan Reynolds.
In 2015, Pitt made his directorial debut with “The Driver” an 18 minutes film part of an original campaign concept he created for Rag & Bone. He is currently focusing on developing his first feature film.
CHIN HAN (“Togusa”) was featured in two films opening in 2016: the Fox feature “Independence Day Resurgence,” and the Chinese / German feature “A Different Sun.
His other notable credits include “The Dark Knight” (蝙蝠侠前传2), Roland Emmerich’s “2012,” and the Gus Van Sant movie “Restless” for Columbia Pictures, which was the opening film for Canne’s Un Certain Regard 2011. Chin Han also led in “Contagion” for Steven Soderbergh opposite Matt Damon, Marion Cottilard, Kate Winslet, and Jude Law; and had a cameo in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”
On television, he is best remembered as the lead villain Jia Sidao in Netflix’s “Marco Polo,” and HBO Asia’s original series “Serangoon Road” opposite Joan Chen. He has also had recurring roles on television shows like “Last Resort,” “Arrow,” and “The Blacklist.”
Chin Han was also named to CNNgo’s 2010 list of Asia’s 25 Greatest Actors of All Time, and was nominated in March 2013 for Variety’s Asian Star of the Year Award.
DANUSIA SAMAL (“Ladriya”) is a London-born actress and jazz singer, who is currently on stage in two productions: playing the role of the jailer’s daughter in “Two Noble Kinsmen,” and the role of Astrea in “The Rover,” both at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
In 2015, Samal played the recurring character of Ru’A in FX’s American television series “Tyrant: Series 2.” She is also a voice actress with numerous radio credits for BBC radio.
In the last several years, Samal has enjoyed a diverse range of stage roles and worked at a number of leading British theatre venues, including The Royal Court, Shakespeare’s Globe, Soho Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange and the Liverpool Everyman.
Also in 2015, she appeared in “The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead,” which received four stars from both The Times and The Guardian; and in Zinne Harris’s play “How to Hold your Breath” at the Royal Court directed by Vicky Featherstone. In 2014, she played Maude Lynn in Marcus Gardley’s Glickman Award winning play “The House That Will Not Stand;” and Demi in Rachel De-lahay’s “Circles.” In 2013, Samal played the title role of Billy in “Billy The Girl;” Lulu in Blanche McIntyre’s production of “The Birthday Party;” and Grace in “Liar, Liar” as well as Shahrazad in a new production of “1001 Nights.”
As a jazz and soul musician, Samal writes her own songs and collaborates with other artists, such as guitarist/comedian Ed Gaughan with whom she recently released the “Let’s Do It” EP. She performs regularly at jazz venues across London, and is also a fully qualified vocal tutor.
Having spent part of her childhood living in Turkey and Yemen, Samal returned to the UK at age 10, later attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts, and earned a BA in Acting at the Central School of Speech & Drama. During her time training, she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier bursary and the Carleton Hobbs BBC Radio Award.
Samal makes her motion picture debut in “Ghost in the Shell.”
Australian actor LASARUS RATUERE (“Ishikawa”) makes his American film debut in “Ghost in the Shell.” In 2017, he will also be seen as a series regular in the hugely anticipated season two of “Cleverman,” and HBO’s mystery drama “The Leftovers.”
Ratuere has appeared in the comedy feature film “The Mule” starring Hugo Weaving, as well as a number of short films in Australia. On Australian television, he recently starred in the hugely successful award-winning series “Ready For This” and appeared in the social and politically motivated biopic drama “Mabo” as Malcolm Mabo in 2012, as well as the world war epic “The Digger” in 2011. That same year, he made his American television debut in Steven Spielberg’s and 20th Century Fox’s sci-fi series “Terra Nova.”
YUKATA IZUMIHARA (“Saito”) is an Australian actor and stunt performer of Japanese descent, who has made an impressive career appearing in and serving as a military advisor to a variety of Australian, Japanese, and American film and television projects.
His career highlights include the Hollywood projects: the upcoming “Meg,” Mel Gibson’s “Hacksaw Ridge,” Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken,” “The Wolverine” starring High Jackman, and “Superman Returns,” as well as HBO’s acclaimed mini-series “The Pacific,” for which he also worked as a Japanese military advisor. His numerous others credits include: “A Place to Call Home,” Miramax’s “The Great Raid,” and “The Postcard Bandit.” He was also a military consultant and appeared in “The Railway Man” starring Jeremy Irvine, Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman; ABC’s “Sisters of War;” and the Australian television series “Kokoda.”
He has also appeared on stage in Australia in plays such as “White Divers of Broome,” “Onna No Honor,” and “Take Me Out.”
Izumihara studied acting at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, and has continued his education at various acting and stunt workshops in Japan, Australia and the US, including training with the top military technical advisor to Hollywood Captain Dale Dye. He currently lives in Gold Coast, Australia.
TAWANDA MANYIMO (“Borma”) is featured in the upcoming films “Meg” and “The Changeover,” and has the lead role in “Tropical Snow.” He recently appeared in the feature films “Slow West” starring Michael Fassbender, and “The Rover,” directed by David Michod and written by Michod and actor Joel Edgerton.
His New Zealand credits include the films “Rage,” and the shorts “Dancers,” “The Guardian,” the currently filming “The Seraphim Heresey,” and “Monkeys Don’t Mix,” as well as the television mini-series “Flat3,” the series “Girl vs. Boy,” and the TV movie “Tangiwai.”
Manyimo was born and raised in Zimbabwe, Africa and moved to New Zealand at the age of 22. An instinctive love of performance led him to the nearest amateur theatre and he was immediately cast in the play “The Full Monty.”
In 2011, he earned a Bachelor of Performing Arts in Acting from Toi Whakaari, the New Zealand Drama School, and immediately became involved in various theatre and screen productions. Manyimo is also a musician who plays guitar and percussion instruments. He resides in Auckland, New Zealand.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
RUPERT SANDERS’ (Director) balance of bold vision, immaculate detail, and resonant humanity has made him one of the most sought-after award-winning directors for clients with large-scale projects in mind.
Currently, Sanders is in post-production on his new film, Ghost in the Shell, an epic science fiction film based on the Japanese manga of the same name, starring Scarlett Johansson. Manga fans around the world have eagerly anticipated his vision of the film for over 3 years since he began to developing the highly sought after property. Paramount will release the film on March 31, 2017.
Sanders made his feature film directing debut with Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman, a dark, fantastical take on the fairytale starring Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Stewart, and Charlize Theron. The film was released in June 2012, earning 31 nominations overall in the awards circuit with two Oscar nominations, one for Sanders’ brilliant use of visual effects. The film grossed nearly $400 million worldwide.
On the commercial side, Sanders directed the epic Joy to launch Xbox 360 in 2005. Later that year, Sanders earned an Outstanding Commercial Director nomination from the DGA, for his work on Joy as well as the Adidas commercial Made to Perfection. In 2008, Rupert followed this success by sweeping the Clios, ANDYS, Addy’s, AICP, D&AD, and Cannes awards for his subsequent Halo spots and his work for Puma. In addition to bringing home a Titanium Grand Prix Film award for Halo3 Believe. That same year, Sanders’ spot for Travelers, Delivery, was nominated for a commercial Emmy.
In 2010, Sanders took home two Golds for Cinematography, a Silver for Direction, two Bronzes for Entertainment and Leisure, and a Bronze for Editing at the Cannes Advertising Film Festival for his Xbox for Halo ODST The Life, Adidas’ The Spark, Nike’s Slap and Microsoft’s Life spots. That same year at the Clios, Xbox for Halo ODST The Life took home four awards with Adidas’ The Spark, Nike’s Field General and Slap and ITV Brighter Side taking home a Clios award as well.
In 2011, Sanders commercial for DirecTV’s Robots took home a bronze award for Commercial Public Service at Cannes, Direction and Sound Design at Ciclope, and Editing at the Clios, as well as a Silver at Ciclope for Visual Effects and an AICP for Sound Design. Sanders was also up for Director of the Year at the Shot Awards that year, and his work for Call of Duty: Black Ops, which had already earned a Gold for Direction at Ciclope and an AICP for Production.
Beyond his immense commercial success, he has developed and directed his own short films that would lay the groundwork for his feature film work. Shorts such as D-Minus and the adaptation of the Charles Burns graphic novel Black Hole, stand on their own as unique and genre bending films. Much of his visual and storytelling elements in the shorts can be traced back to his time spent in commercials. These films prepared him to navigate the feature film world he has now become such significant voice in. His upcoming feature film Ghost in the Shell is the culmination of many years of redefining genres and pushing the envelope of the status quo.
AVI ARAD (Producer) was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Marvel Studios, the film and television division of Marvel Entertainment, and Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment. In June of 2006, Arad branched off to form his own production company – Arad Productions, Inc. Arad has been a driving force behind bringing many of Marvel’s most famous comic book characters to the screen, with a track record that has been nothing short of spectacular, including a string of No. 1 box office openings.
As a producer or executive producer, his credits include Spider- Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Columbia Pictures); X-Men, X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand (Twentieth Century Fox); The Hulk (Universal Pictures); Daredevil (New Regency); The Punisher (Lionsgate); Blade, Blade II and Blade: Trinity (New Line Cinema); Elektra (Twentieth Century Fox); The Fantastic Four and its sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Twentieth Century Fox); Bratz: The Movie (Lionsgate); Ghost Rider and Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance (Columbia Pictures); Iron Man (Paramount Pictures); and The Incredible Hulk (Universal).
Mr. Arad’s current feature film slate includes Venom (Columbia Pictures), Animated Spider-Man Feature (Sony Pictures Animation), Uncharted (Columbia Pictures), Metal Gear Solid (Columbia Pictures), Naruto (Lionsgate), Borderlands (Lionsgate), and many more.
Arad has also been producing animation for over 20 years on such series such as “X-Men,” “Fantastic Four,” “Silver Surfer,” “Iron Man,” “Spider-Man,” “Conan the Adventurer,” “King Arthur & the Knights of Justice,” “Bots Master,” and on direct-to-video animated features such as “Avengers,” “Iron Man” and many others.
Additionally, Arad created “Mutant X” and produced sixty-six hours of the live-action TV series for Tribune Entertainment. He also produced thirteen hours of “Blade”, the live-action TV series for Spike TV. Currently Arad is producing the Netflix Original Series, “Kong – King of the Apes”, “Tarzan and Jane”, “Super Monsters” and others.
Born in Cyprus and raised in Israel, Arad came to the United States during his college years and enrolled at Hofstra University to study industrial management. He earned a bachelor of business administration from the University in 1972. A long- established expert in youth entertainment, Arad is one of the world’s top toy designers. He has been involved in the creation and development of over two hundred successful products, including action figures, play sets, dolls, toy vehicles, electronic products, educational software and video games. In fact, virtually every major toy and youth entertainment manufacturer, including Toy Biz, Hasbro, Mattel, MGA, Nintendo, Tiger, Ideal, Galoob, Tyco, Sega and THQ, has been selling his products for more than 30 years.
In addition to his toy, animation, and film projects, today, Arad served as the Executive Advisor of NAMCO BANDAI Holdings and as a Chairperson of Production I.G’s American affiliate – Production I.G., LLC.
ARI ARAD (Producer) started out at Village Roadshow in feature development before heading to Marvel Studios in 2001, where he executive produced and co-produced numerous films in addition to contributing to the development of several Marvel video games. In June of 2006, Ari joined Avi Arad in creating Arad Productions, Inc., where he currently serves as the President. As an executive producer his credits include Blade: the TV Series (Spike TV), Ghost Rider (Columbia Pictures), and Iron Man (Paramount Pictures).
His current feature film slate includes adaptations of some of the most well-known and beloved videogames, comics and anime in the world. Such as: Ghost in the Shell (Dreamworks/Paramount), Borderlands (Lionsgate), Naruto (Lionsgate), Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Columbia Pictures), Metal Gear Solid (Columbia Pictures), and many more.
STEVEN PAUL (Producer) started as an Actor at the age of 6 years old doing his first TV commercial. At age 12, he became the youngest actor/playwright on Broadway at the time and he started his first company, building his own production studio with multiple cameras, special effects, sound, and lighting equipment he purchased.
At age 16, Steven wrote, produced, directed, and starred in his first half hour film, MEMORIES ARE NOT ENOUGH. When he was 18, he convinced Kurt Vonnegut to give him the motion picture rights to his bestselling novel SLAPSTICK, which Steven later produced and directed with Jerry Lewis starring in the lead role.
Steven became the youngest producer in history to have written, produced, directed, and starred in a film at the age of 20 years old with the film, FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN, which he wrote with his father and starred Michelle Pfeiffer, in her first film and Elliot Gould. Steven sold the film to distributors around the world at the Cannes Film Festival in 1980.
Steven created the BABY GENIUSES franchise in 1997 with Bob Clark, which became a worldwide success. He has produced, financed, written, directed, and/or sold upwards of 100 motion pictures, including Marvel Comics’ GHOST RIDER with Nicolas Cage, Namco’s TEKKEN, Universal Pictures’ DOOMSDAY, BIG STAN with Rob Schneider, BRATZ, and the upcoming GHOST IN THE SHELL.
Steven has built one of the longest running and largest independent production and sales companies in the entertainment businesses in development, distribution, post-production, visual effects, talent management, and real estate companies. His SP Releasing banner maintains an exclusive output deal with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and he recently acquired Echo Bridge, based in La Crosse, Wis., where it operates from a 125,000 square-foot distribution facility. Echo Bridge has a longtime direct relationship with Walmart, and distributes products to more than 20,000 retail outlets and 40,000 kiosks. Steven’s real estate includes an Office Building in Century City that he bought over 10 years ago, from Legendary producer Samuel Goldwynn Jr.
MICHAEL COSTIGAN (Producer) is a film and television producer based in Los Angeles. Costigan began his career at Sony Pictures in 1993, and as Executive Vice President of Production, he oversaw the acquisition, development and production of films including Milos Forman’s Academy Award®-nominated THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT; James Mangold’s GIRL, INTERRUPTED; McG’s CHARLIE’S ANGELS; Guy Ritchie’s SNATCH; Gus Van Sant’s acclaimed TO DIE FOR; Andrew Niccol’s debut film GATTACA; and Wes Anderson’s debut feature BOTTLE ROCKET. He made the transition to producing movies with BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN in 2004. Directed by Ang Lee and adapted from the Annie Proulx short story by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, the film was nominated for ‘Best Picture,’ and won Academy Awards for ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Screenplay.’
Costigan then joined Scott Free, Ridley and Tony Scott’s production company as President and during his seven-year tenure, Costigan oversaw, produced and executive produced 15 films including AMERICAN GANGSTER, THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3, BODY OF LIES, ROBIN HOOD, CYRUS, STOKER, Park Chan Wook’s (OLDBOY) acclaimed English-language debut starring Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman and Matthew Goode, and OUT OF THE FURNACE, starring Christian Bale and Casey Affleck, and directed by Scott Cooper. He also executive produced Ridley Scott’s PROMETHEUS, starring Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron and THE COUNSELOR, an original screenplay by Cormac McCarthy and starring Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz.
Costigan’s production company COTA FILMS is based in Los Angeles, and he produced A BIGGER SPLASH, directed by Luca Guadagnino (I am Love) and starring Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenarts, and Dakota Johnson for Studio Canal and Fox Searchlight. It appeared on the New York Times and numerous bast films of 2017 lists. Also set for release in 2017 from Cota Films is WOODSHOCK, the debut film of Laura and Kate Mulleavy and starring Kirsten Dunst, which will be released in the US by A24 (Moonlight).
JEFFREY SILVER (Executive Producer) has produced over 30 feature films, topping $2 billion at the worldwide box office. He’s currently at work on a remake of The Lion King, for Disney, starring Donad Glover, directed by Jon Favreau. Upcoming releases in 2017 are Beauty & the Beast, for Disney, starring Emma Watson, directed by Bill Condon, and Ghost in the Shell, for Dreamworks/Paramount, starring Scarlett Johansson, directed by Rupert Sanders. Most recently released is sci-fi actioner, Edge of Tomorrow, for Warner Bros, directed by Doug Liman, starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Other notable movies include sci-fantasy, Disney’s Tron: Legacy, starring Jeff Bridges, the global hit, 300, for Warners, adapted from the graphic novel by Frank Miller, directed by Zack Snyder, cop-classic, Training Day, for Warners, starring Denzel Washington, and the holiday classics Disney’s The Santa Clause movies, starring Tim Allen. Silver also produced the hit television series The Wonder Years for which he received an Emmy as Producer for Best Comedy Series.
Born in 1953 in Hiroshima, TETSUYA FUJIMURA (Executive Producer) joined Akai Electric Co., Ltd. in 1976 and at that company was engaged in international business in overseas markets. He left Akai in 1981 and participated in the foundation of a foreign investment firm and, after working as a director for a film company, founded GAGA Communications, Inc. in 1986 in Tokyo. GAGA started as an acquisition agent on behalf of many major video distributors, and Tetsu as president lead the company to the top of its industry. The company then entered film distribution in 1992 and grew up to be the top independent foreign film distributor in Japan. During its 20 years of business under Tetsu’s leadership GAGA became one of the most recognized Japanese businesses worldwide in the entertainment industry. GAGA was listed on the Japan Nasdaq Stock Exchange in 2001, and in 2004 became part of the USEN conglomerate, where Tetsu served as a director. In December 2006, Tetsu founded the Filosophia, Inc. to introduce Japanese IPs to overseas producers and studios to adapt and remake into Hollywood/Foreign movies and TV series as well as consultation businesses based on his experience and relationships in the industry.
Tetsu graduated Keio University with a degree in political science. He has received numerous awards in the domestic and international film industry and has served as a trustee and director of various film and trade organizations. Tetsu is also the author of several books.
YOSHINOBU NOMA (Executive Producer) is the Chief Executive Officer of Kodansha, Ltd., one of Japan’s leading publishers. Noma started his career at The Mitsubishi Bank, Ltd., where he served for 8 years before joining Kodansha Ltd. as a board member. He subsequently did duty as executive director and vice president before his current position. Noma also serves as an external board member for Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. and Nippon Shuppan Hanbai Inc., along with his service as advisor for committees in the Japanese Cabinet Office, as well as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Noma holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Keio University.
Founded in 1909, Kodansha, Ltd. is Japan’s leading publishing company. In fiscal year 2016 it has marked a gross revenue of 117.9B Yen, printing over 300 million books in the single year. Amongst its wide variety of books, their MANGA division has been a key influencer in Japanese culture worldwide, with classics including “The Ghost in the Shell” and “AKIRA”, along with “Sailor Moon”, “Attack on Titan” and other titles encompassing a variety of genres worldwide. More recently, Kodansha has a focus on content business (electronic publishing, international licensing, motion picture adaptations and merchandising), as well as integrating AI and latest developments in technology to their publishing business.
Born in Tokyo in 1958, MITSUHISA ISHIKAWA (Executive Producer) joined TATSUNOKO PRODUCTION Co, Ltd., after graduating from college, and later established his own company Production I.G, Inc., of which he is currently the CEO and president. Ishikawa is known for the world famous “Ghost in the Shell” (1995), “Blood: The Last Vampire” (2000), the animated sequence in “Kill Bill: Vol.1” (2003), as well as “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence” (2004), which was the first anime to be nominated at the Cannes International Film Festival. Within the current anime market, he is also known for such popular titles as “Attack on Titan,” “Psycho-Pass,” and “Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie.”
JAMIE MOSS (Screenplay By) is a Canadian-born screenwriter residing in Los Angeles. His spec script LAST MAN HOME landed high on the 2006 Black List and was sold to Universal Pictures. It garnered feature-film writing assignments for Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. His produced films include STREET KINGS, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS and RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. His future projects include the upcoming submarine thriller HUNTER KILLER, as well as several projects in development to produce and direct.
WILLIAM WHEELER (Screenplay By) has written the screenplays for five produced motion pictures. His filmography includes the 2016 Disney release “Queen of Katwe” starring David Oyelowo and Lupita N’yongo; “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” directed by Mira Nair and starring Rizwan Ahmed; “The Hoax” directed by Lasse Hallstrom and starring Richard Gere; and “The Prime Gig” featuring Ed Harris and Vince Vaughn. “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” opened the Venice Film Festival in 2012 and won the German film Award for Peace. “Queen of Katwe” was runner-up for the People’s Choice award at the Toronto Film Festival last year and was nominated for four NAACP Image Awards.
Most recently, Bill co-wrote with his brother Tom the screenplay for “Lego: Ninjago” to be released in 2018.
Currently, Bill is adapting for the screen Deborah Layton’s memoir “Seductive Poison” about Jim Jones and the People’s Temple. He is additionally developing two projects for television: “Controller”, about the aviation industry to be directed by Barry Levinson, and “Harlot’s Ghost”, a limited series version of the novel by Norman Mailer which Bill is adapting for F/X.
Bill has mentored filmmakers from around the globe through the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Lab in Utah and the Maisha Film Lab in Kampala, Uganda. He has advised at Sundance International Labs in Jordan, Turkey, Japan and Greece. Bill served as artistic director of Sundance International’s 2013 Lab in Mumbai, India.
EHREN KRUGER (Screenplay By) is a native of Alexandria, Virginia and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting in 1996 for his original suspense drama ARLINGTON ROAD, which was produced in 1999 as his first feature film, directed by Mark Pellington and starring Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins.
In the years since, he has written screenplays for such international blockbusters as THE RING, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Naomi Watts, and three installments of Michael Bay’s billion-dollar Transformers franchise, including TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON and TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION. His other credits include the twisty thrillers THE SKELETON KEY, directed by Iain Softley and starring Kate Hudson, REINDEER GAMES, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Ben Affleck and Charlize Theron, and the comedy-adventure THE BROTHERS GRIMM, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger.
Mr. Kruger currently lives in San Francisco, where he is able to observe its native tech
community working to turn “Ghost in the Shell” technology into reality soon.
JESS HALL (Director of Photography) studied Film and Fine Art at St Martins College of Art, London and New York University. Before graduating he began an influential collaboration with the highly acclaimed contemporary choreographer William Forsythe. This produced two award winning films for the BBC focussing on the translation of three dimensional movement into a two dimensional medium.
In 2001 Hall photographed his first dramatic feature film ‘Stander’ for the director Bronwyn Hughes. The film features a powerful performance by Thomas Jane and was celebrated for its authentic portrayal of 1970’s South Africa. Hall went on to photograph the iconic British comedy ‘Hot Fuzz’ written and directed by Edgar Wright. Produced by Universal/Working Title, the film was a critical and commercial success, setting records at the UK box office in its opening weekend and establishing a cult following in the US. Following this Hall photographed ‘Son of Rambo’ written and directed by Garth Jennings. The film charmed audiences at The Sundance Film Festival and has continued to be recognised as a classic in its genre.
In 2008 Hall received a Satellite Award Nomination for his cinematography on ‘Brideshead Revisited’. Taking his lighting approach from the Dutch masters Hall crafted a dark yet luminous visual palette thus subtly reflecting the themes of love, faith, family and betrayal encompassed in the original novel by Evelyn Waugh. Another period film followed, ‘Creation’ directed by John Amiel and produced by Jeremy Thomas. Made with the collaboration and support of the Darwin family the film featured Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin and Jennifer Connelly as his wife Emma. Hall’s photography successfully transcended classical period traditions to create an intimate film of emotional strength and depth. In 2010 He was invited to become a member of The British Society of Cinematographers.
Hall went on to photograph two US films. The dark romantic comedy ‘The Switch’ directed by Speck Gordon and the action comedy ’30 Minutes or Less’ directed by Reuben Fleisher. In doing so he continued to demonstrate his ability to move across genres effortlessly. His versatility as a cinematographer is further evident in his recent diverse choice of projects. This includes work on Kevin McDonalds documentary ‘Marley’, collaborations on commercial projects for clients such as Nike, BMW and Gatorade with high calibre directors such as; Spike Lee, Guy Ritchie and Rupert Sanders. Hall’s beautiful, naturalistic palette and poetic shot structure was celebrated on James Ponsoldt’s feature ‘The Spectacular Now’ which took the ‘Special Jury Prize’ at Sundance 2013. For his latest feature Hall worked with oscar winning cinematographer turned director Wally Pfister on the technological thriller ‘Transcendence’ starring Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall and Morgan Freeman.
The design team of KURT AND BART (Costume Designers) is a creative collaboration born out of a chance meeting at the University of Colorado in 1983. Formally educated in the notorious NYC club scene of the 1980’s, their sartorial obsession and shared sensibility has traversed the worlds of fashion, music, theatre and film.
In 2014 Kurt and Bart received the Costume Designer’s Guild Award nomination for Excellence in Period Film for their work on the Oscar winning drama DALLAS BUYERS CLUB, directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, starring Mathew McConaughey and Jared Leto.
STOKER starring Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska was an opportunity to work with internationally acclaimed auteur director Park Chan-wook. Their costume design work was nominated for the 2014 London Film Critics Circle for Technical Achievement .
Their previous work in film is as varied as the gritty noir OUT OF THE FURNACE starring Christian Bale and directed by Scott Cooper for Relativity, to the dance musical STEP UP 3D directed by Jon M. Chu for Paramount. Kurt and Bart’s filmography includes Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY with Zach Galifianakis and Emma Roberts, Todd Solandz DARK HORSE with Mia Farrow and Selma Blair, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Freidman’s HOWL with James Franco and John Hamm, Dito Montiel’s FIGHTING with Channing Tatum, Daniel Barnz PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND with Elle Fanning, and John Cameron Mitchell’s notorious SHORTBUS.
Their early career included designing their own clothing line called Design Asylum and creating costumes for commercials and music videos. They stood out as styling team with an approach as much about pulling fashion looks as it was about designing and building custom pieces to realize a visual image. As stylists, Kurt and Bart have worked with some of the world’s strongest and most prolific image makers, among them, Steven Klein, Herb Ritts, Patrick Demarchelier, Matthew Rolston, Francis Lawrence, Dean Karr, Mark Seliger, and Mary Ellen Mark. They have created lasting images with such music icons as David Bowie, Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, Courtney Love, Pink, and Britney Spears.
Kurt and Bart most recently designed the costumes for Mockingjay Pt 1 and 2 of the Hunger Games franchise.
FIONA CAMPBELL WESTGATE (Visual Effects Producer) has over 14 years of experience as a Visual Effects Producer working on over 40 feature films. Starting at VFX Facilities, Fiona gained extensive experience working on Films, Commercials, and Music Videos before transitioning to a Production side VFX Producer. Her multifaceted experience gives Campbell Westgate a comprehensive understanding of both the filmmakers and facilities needs to ensure the best possible outcome for each motion picture.
Early in her career, Campbell Westgate had the good fortune of working with acclaimed Canadian director David Cronenberg on his stand out films, A History of Violence and Eastern Promises, which further reinforced her love of motion pictures and the Visual Effects Industry. Fiona has also worked with many other esteemed directors including, John Singleton, Ang Lee, Sir Richard Attenborough, and Justin Lin.
One month prior to embarking on the highly anticipated adaptation of the
Anime Ghost in the Shell, Fiona completed shot production of the visually stunning, action fantasy Dracula Untold, Directed by Gary Shore for Universal Pictures.
Campbell Westgate is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) as well as the Visual Effects Society (VES). Having collaborated with the industry’s top creative talent, Fiona is humbled and honored to be pursuing her dream as a VFX Producer.
MPC’s Academy Award winning VFX Supervisor, GUILLAUME ROCHERON (Visual Effects Supervisor) began his career in 2000 at BUF in France where he started as a generalist 3D Artist working on The Race, Panic Room and The Matrix Reloaded. During his time at BUF he became one of the most senior members of the studio involved in many of the projects that transformed the company from a small facility to one of the biggest, most successful and renowned studios in France.
Guillaume joined MPC in 2005 as a Senior Technical Director in the closing stages of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. After working on a number of projects including Batman Begins, X-Men: Last Stand, Sunshine and Elizabeth: The Golden Age as a Lead Lighting and Lookdev TD, he quickly rose to the role of CG Supervisor on 10,000 BC followed by Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Shanghai, Night at the Museum 2 and GI Joe: The Rise of the Cobra.
In 2010 Guillaume became MPC VFX Supervisor leading the teams on Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Sucker Punch, Fast 5 and Man of Steel. In 2013 Guillaume received an Academy Award, BAFTA, Critics Choice Award and VES award for MPC’s work on Ang Lee’s critically acclaimed Life of Pi.
More recently Guillaume led MPC’s global teams to deliver Gareth Edward’s vision of the ‘King of the Monsters’ Godzilla and worked with director Zack Snyder on Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Currently Guillaume is working as Production VFX Supervisor on Rupert Sanders’ Ghost in the Shell.
