The cast continues to grow for the live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell and the film has now found its villain. Sam Riley is in very early and fluid talks for the role, though according to Deadline both sides are very interested in making it work. Riley’s not a well-known name overall but he’s gotten attention for his work in the film Control and will be seen in next year’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as Mr. Darcy.
The feature is set to debut on March 31st, 2017 and is set to be directed by Rupert Sanders and is being produced by Avi Arad and Steven Paul with Mark Saurian as executive producer. Scarlett Johansson stars as the lead, Pilou Asbæk as Batou and Sam Riley.
The film is being produced by DreamWorks and Paramount may invest in it, but it’s listed as Disney as they distribute DreamWorks live action films (but not DreamWorks Animation properties, which is a different company).
Property concept: The story follows a female special ops cyborg who leads a fictional counter-cyberterrorist organization called Public Security Section 9 for Hanka Robotics. The unit is devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists, led by The Laughing Man who will stop at nothing to destroy Hanka’s advancements in cyber technology.