Producer of the upcoming live action adaptation of Ghost In The Shell Steven Paul has gotten himself into ever-hotter water recently after defending the decision to cast Scarlett Johansson in the film’s lead, despite the character being Japanese in the source material.
Speaking to Buzzfeed in defense of the casting decision, Paul had this to say:
“I think everybody is going to end up being really happy with it. They’re going to be very, very happy with it when they see what we’ve actually done with it, and I don’t think anybody’s going to be disappointed.”
Not acknowledging that they could have found a suitable Asian lead if they had had any intention of doing so, Paul gave a rather vague explanation of how race applies to the film’s message and world.
“There [are] all sorts of people and nationalities in the world in Ghost in the Shell,” he explains.
“We’re utilizing people from all over the world… There’s Japanese in it. There’s Chinese in it. There’s English in it. There’s Americans in it.”
What he doesn’t explain though is why any of the Japanese actresses that are in the film couldn’t have played the role taken by Johansson. Instead, he plowed ahead with his own reading of the work as an ‘international story’ which in turn justifies the casting choice.
“I don’t think it was just a Japanese story. [It] was a very international story… it was supposed to be an entire world,” he explained.
“That’s why I say the international approach is, I think, the right approach to it.”
What he isn’t saying, of course, is what Ridley Scott said when he was run over the coals for casting Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton as Moses and Ramses respectively in Exodus: Gods & Kings. Namely that you can’t get a blockbuster made (ergo financed) in Hollywood without a bankable (ergo white) star in the lead. Nevermind that China is fast becoming the world’s largest movie market, nor that Scott’s Exodus tanked at the box office as did the equally offensive and white washed Gods Of Egypt.
On that note it’s pretty difficult to imagine Paul’s comments will do anything to bring back viewers who’ve decided to boycott the movie over the casting decision.
Ghost In The Shell is due for release on Wednesday 29th March 2017.
