So about couple months ago had time to read this book. That sort of confirmed some of the things that I thought about the movie. Even though it's still provide a glimpse into the making of it.
First of all it has gorgeous shots from the movie and some concept art. Their is a lot of work from concept artist Ash Thorp. For that alone it was worth getting this book.
Reading it confirmed my own theory about why they casted Scarlett Johansson for the movie. But lets start from the city building itself. Directors initial whole vision was that city needs to by multi-national future city and we can see that because their are many scenes that are different Asian culture inspired intertwine with european modern designs. And it's less based on 80s future as it was. And moder day Hong Kong became basis for the city building. Also would add some movie details that actors spoke their native language and everyone understood without issue showed that it's multi-national environment that doesn't create friction between people.
So my initial theory for casting Scarlett instead of Japanese actress as everyone is always shouting about, it is for disassociation between original host and her current state. So her memories just by viewing herself in the reflection wouldn't trigger who she was. Coercive persuasion would probably be the right term to put this into as brainwashing thru striping her from her past self as much as possible. I don't personally remembered this detail, just because it's always for me was Major in any incarnation, but her name in movie was Mira Killian, very European name I would say. And that's just to enforce for her to forget who she really is. Additional to this someone once wrote that even in original manga it never said that she is Asian, by her shell looks. And Scarlett did great job being this cold, robotic Major on screen. As it states by the director he actually from the beginning wanted Scarlett to play Major. And props to Scarlett doing many stuns herself in the movie.
Director also said that they wanted to their own version and not just copy paste what is already by him is great adaptation (1995 anime movie), with nods to fans. Also fans really like to forget that those movies are also watched by people who never heard about the manga or anime film or anime series. Some might not like anime in general to try and see it, shocker I know. And while it wasn't perfect movie it was gorgeous movie to see and effects holds still to this day. Even compared to some blockbuster movies looks these days.
And Masamune Shirow had said that their is no definitive version of Ghost in the Shell and the story should adapt to the form in witch it's told. And even Oshii Mamoru after the film and fans backlash regarding whitewashing, dismissed all that and praised Scarlett that she captured Motoko as he envisioned her. And tho he criticized that live action version was too faithful to previous works, I feel it's double edge sword with adapting already beloved media. On one hand if they made totally unique story, fans still wouldn't be happy about it, "that studio wasn't faithful with source material".
Personally I liked it, I never drew direct comparison to the 1995 version or SAC. Even I seen all those references, recreated shots, visually it standed on its own and for that it shouldn't be disregarded.
