Section 9’s hot-headed mêlée specialist joins the party!
Yesterday, Variety reported that the upcoming live-action Ghost in the Shell movie will cast Danish actor Pilou Asbæk as Batou. According to Variety, the character is being cast as “the best fighter in [Section 9] and second in command in the army.”
Variety also gave a brief rundown of the film’s story:
Based on the internationally-acclaimed sci-fi property, “Ghost in the Shell” follows a female special ops cyborg who leads an elite task force called Section 9 for Hanka Robotics. Section 9 is devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists, led by The Laughing Man whose singular goal is to wipe out Hanka’s advancements in cyber technology.
Asbæk was tapped to play Euron Greyjoy in Game of Thrones and Mikkel Hartmann in A Hijacking. He joins lead actress Scarlett Johansson, who will play the role of Motoko Kusanagi in the production. The two previously worked together in 2014 film Lucy.
The live-action Ghost in the Shell movie was first greenlit for production in January. Disney will finance the feature, which begins filming next year. Paramount will co-produce in exchange for distribution rights in international markets.
The film’s script was written by William Wheeler (The Hoax) and Jamie Moss (Street Kings). Straight Outta Compton writer Jonathan Herman was pulled onto the team to rewrite.
Ari Arad, Avi Arad and Steven Paul are attached as producers on the project. Michael Costigan, Jeffrey Silver, Tetsu Fujimura and Mitsuhisa Ishikawa will serve as executive producers. Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) was tapped to direct.
As of press time, the live-action Ghost in the Shell film is slated for a March 31, 2017 première.
Source: Variety
