Upon knowing that Ghost in the Shell has been a film in development hell for almost a decade since it was initially announced. And this has been a film that has moved from studio to studio; with Mickey Mouse seemingly being the one to make until the Mouse dropped it off at Paramount with DreamWorks co-producing the film. Universal has picked up distribution rights for numerous countries outside of the United States, not sure how much of their involvement factors into the final product of the film.
Before I get to the real source of the "problem"; I want to address the biggest complaint that I have seen to date. Scarlett Johansson was announced as the role of the "Major" who in the anime and manga is named Motoko Kusanagi. As you can tell, Scarlett Johansson is an American of Danish descent. The biggest and most annoying remark I see regarding this casting choice is; "Why Isn't Rinko Kikuchi the Major"?
Hollywood is a money making machine. Whenever movies are being pitched and financiers are mulling things over, if it's not going to make money; it needs to win awards. And to make money, you need names that will put asses in seats. Case in point, Rinko Kikuchi is persona-non-grata or "box office poison". 2013 was a big year for Rinko and it was a bust for her as both Pacific Rim and 47 Ronin bombed. Pacific Rim was budgeted around $200 million and made half of that in the United States. And even though it made $100 million in the States, half of the money goes to the theatrical establishments meaning that WB only got $50 million. That means that in the United States, only a quarter a film's budget was recouped.
And almost everyone jumps to the fact that Pacific Rim made a killing in China and grossed almost $112 million. While China has been the number two market that studios are looking at, it is not the United States. It all varies from studio to studio, Legendary decided to go for a sequel for both Pacific Rim and Warcraft because of the Chinese box office results while both films bombed here in the States. Since Ghost in the Shell is a Paramount film; they had all ready tried to rely on the Chinese market for Terminator: Genisys to get a sixth film made and it failed to make enough to justify getting that film off the ground. Paramount and the financiers are probably not going to take that risk for this film, even though I doubt there will be a sequel despite how vast this universe is.
47 Ronin was crowned the title of the "biggest box office bomb of 2013". The film made under $40 million in the United States and cost a grand total of $225 million dollars. The film failed to get a Chinese release and it's biggest grossing outside the United States was Russia with about $27 million. Worldwide, the film made $150 million and half of that goes to the theater establishments. So, a $225 million that only made a third of it's budget back.
And her follow up to those films was Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter which only managed to score a limited theatrical release. Most likely due to the failures of her other previous English language films. I cannot find any budget for this film, which was probably a $20+ million film and it didn't even hit a million worldwide in theatrical grosses.
Rinko has gone back to Japan and is now married and starting a family. While she has a part in Pacific Rim 2: Uprising, it is not a lead role. And besides, there are other Asian actresses who are more qualified but most people who jump to the default "Why isn't it Rinko" probably don't watch a lot of foreign films to see what other talent is out there compared to what junk the Hollywood system churns out. Actresses like Ai Hashimoto, Satomi Ishihara, Kiko Mizuhara, Aya Ueto, Chiaki Kuriyama; and other Asian ethnic actresses like Liu Yufei, Li Bingbing, or Kelly Hu. There are plenty of other Asian actresses out there who could get the job done compared to Rinko Kikuchi.
I am biased towards both Scarlett Johansson and Rinko Kikuchi. While Scarlett is an attractive woman, her movie roles have been less than stellar in my opinion. And her political views have been a bit of a turn off for me as well. Seeing the trailers and seeing how she has done for the role of the "Major", it's been so-so. I am more or less excited for seeing Beat Takeshi as the man who runs the corporation that created the Major. If you know who Beat Takeshi is, it's kinda surprising seeing him take on an American role. This is the first English film that he has done since Johnny Mnemonic in 1994.
I see a lot of hate from fans and I see a lot of this hate aimed in the wrong direction. It is not Paramount and DreamWorks for making the film. It's not Scarlett Johansson for taking the role; she's an actress who has a child and having a kid means you got to provide. The hate should be, but it won't, is the owners/publisher of the manga. Again, I myself have no problem with this film adaption; but, the owners are the ones who ultimately want to make money off their product. Be it from publishing and selling copies in shops or by cutting adaption deals for either television, film, or video game. The owners are the ones who allow this whenever the ink hits the papers and the money exchanges hands.
I, myself, have had some far out and radical thoughts about doing adaptions because you want to be able to make a product that stands out. Given the case for Ghost in the Shell, you got Scarlett Johannson. If my favorite theatrical establishment ends up getting the film, I will be buying a ticket to see this film because I don't care what you think.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Monday, March 6, 2017
X-Men Timeline? Major Spoilers...
Let me refrain that there is major spoilers ahead for the X-Men films, including Logan. As Wade Wilson said in his film, Deadpool; "McAvoy or Stewart; these timelines are so confusing". Wade does make a point that all of us viewers and fans have bemoaned since X-Men: Days of Future Past which effectively rebooted the series while keeping the cast mostly intact.
Let's break the events down:
1845: James Howlett (Logan) kills the man who turns out to be his biological father and escapes with his brother, Victor aka "Sabertooth". This is the intro to X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
1944: Young Magneto is a child in a German concentration camp. His parents are murdered by Sebastian Shaw. This is the intro to both the first X-Men film and is explored in depth in the intro to X-Men: First Class.
1945: Logan is in P.O.W. camp in Nagasaki, Japan. Logan saves Yoshida. Yoshida thanks Logan and goes on about his business rebuilding Japan and his empire. This is the intro to the Wolverine. It is also worth noting that Victor and Logan must have been off fighting in different parts of WWII at the time as Victor is nowhere to be seen. However we do know that both of them fight together side-by-side in various other conflicts.
1962: Professor Xavier and Mystique meet Moira McTaggert and form a bond with Magneto who is out to kill Sebastian Shaw. We encounter Logan at a bar drinking. Then we have the rest of the events of X-Men: First Class which plays out.
1973: Logan, down and out from various wars is a bodyguard whom has a vision to seek out Professor Charles Xavier. Logan finds him and reveals to Charles that through another dimension in time and space, the older Xavier relays a message that Bolivar Trask must stop his sinister plans to unleash Sentinels on mutants. This is the "Past" portion of X-Men: Days of Future Past.
After this point in time, the continuity is completely altered and events are out of order. We do know that when Logan was sent back through time in the non-existent universe, he knew of all of the events from the X-Men trilogy which was altered and mentions the names of several mutants to Charles Xavier; Cyclops, Jean, Colossus, etc. This was most likely to prevent them from going astray and to possibly stop them from joining the "Brotherhood" which is Magneto's evil group of mutants.
New time line starts with Logan being taken by Mystique (in the disguise of General Stryker) to Alkali Lake to have the Adamantium bonded to his skeleton. All of the events past the opening war sequence of X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been erased and have never happened in the way we saw. We do not know if Team X existed, but, we do know from that film that Stryker was in Africa mining for the Adamantium. And we all know that he needed that for the "Weapon X" program.
Discrepancy is Wade Wilson. If the Vietnam sequence is indeed around 1975 at the end of the war, that means he'd probably be around 20, meaning that he would be 61 in Deadpool. We will just assume that Wade Wilson had a son who would also be called Wade and would go on to become Deadpool at a later point in time. There would be no "Weapon XI" in this timeline.
1983: The "first" mutant, Apocalypse; is awoken after sensing the time and space paradox being distorted from the events in Days of Future Past. The events unfold in the film, X-Men: Apocalypse. Logan appears and has just gone through the Adamantium bonding process and escapes the facility as he is freed by young Scott and Jean as they search for the Professor and the rest of the kidnapped students.
2000: From the film Logan, we know that from what Charles Xavier says, Logan still came the school and the events at the Statue of Liberty still occurred. In what way, we don't know.
2004: According to the film, Logan, last known mutant was born in 2004.
2013: From the film, Logan; we see a Samurai sword on the wall when he is in Mexico. Since the events have been altered, Yoshida would have been unaffected as he was on the other side of the world in Japan building his empire. We don't know if or how these events were altered, but, we do know that in some way, the events of the Wolverine had happened. Granted, Logan would not have been haunted by the memory of Jean Grey since she is still alive and the events of X-Men: the Last Stand did not happen.
2015?: Logan wakes up in the present at Xavier's school. As he wakes up and tries to understand what is happening, he sees all the familiar faces of those who died or left the school. He sees Rogue, who left the mutant life behind in the Last Stand. Logan is shocked to see both Jean and Scott still alive and well. Logan goes to the Xavier and they both seem to have a mutual understanding that they both know that time and space has been altered. This is the end of Days of Future Past.
2016: The events of the film Deadpool play out.
2018: From the film Logan, Laura aka X-23 is born in Mexico sometime in 2018.
2029: Logan.
Speculations from Logan; it is possible that Charles Xavier killed a large majority of mutants in the United States from his Alzheimer/degeneration of his brain. This most likely was strong enough to kill Magneto. Whatever this event was, it cause Logan to take Charles on the run and take care of him until he dies. However, as strong as this event was, it did not have the ability to reach out to Mexico to kill the mutants there. Therefor, it did not kill Laura and the others. Obviously, from the fourteen years after the end of Days of Future Past, Logan has moved on from Jean.
Since Scott and Jean lived and the events of the Last Stand did not happen; the potential for them to conceive Nathan Summers aka Cable is most likely. Especially since Deadpool has been breaking the fourth wall and makes mention of Cable being present in Deadpool 2.
Let's break the events down:
1845: James Howlett (Logan) kills the man who turns out to be his biological father and escapes with his brother, Victor aka "Sabertooth". This is the intro to X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
1944: Young Magneto is a child in a German concentration camp. His parents are murdered by Sebastian Shaw. This is the intro to both the first X-Men film and is explored in depth in the intro to X-Men: First Class.
1945: Logan is in P.O.W. camp in Nagasaki, Japan. Logan saves Yoshida. Yoshida thanks Logan and goes on about his business rebuilding Japan and his empire. This is the intro to the Wolverine. It is also worth noting that Victor and Logan must have been off fighting in different parts of WWII at the time as Victor is nowhere to be seen. However we do know that both of them fight together side-by-side in various other conflicts.
1962: Professor Xavier and Mystique meet Moira McTaggert and form a bond with Magneto who is out to kill Sebastian Shaw. We encounter Logan at a bar drinking. Then we have the rest of the events of X-Men: First Class which plays out.
1973: Logan, down and out from various wars is a bodyguard whom has a vision to seek out Professor Charles Xavier. Logan finds him and reveals to Charles that through another dimension in time and space, the older Xavier relays a message that Bolivar Trask must stop his sinister plans to unleash Sentinels on mutants. This is the "Past" portion of X-Men: Days of Future Past.
After this point in time, the continuity is completely altered and events are out of order. We do know that when Logan was sent back through time in the non-existent universe, he knew of all of the events from the X-Men trilogy which was altered and mentions the names of several mutants to Charles Xavier; Cyclops, Jean, Colossus, etc. This was most likely to prevent them from going astray and to possibly stop them from joining the "Brotherhood" which is Magneto's evil group of mutants.
New time line starts with Logan being taken by Mystique (in the disguise of General Stryker) to Alkali Lake to have the Adamantium bonded to his skeleton. All of the events past the opening war sequence of X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been erased and have never happened in the way we saw. We do not know if Team X existed, but, we do know from that film that Stryker was in Africa mining for the Adamantium. And we all know that he needed that for the "Weapon X" program.
Discrepancy is Wade Wilson. If the Vietnam sequence is indeed around 1975 at the end of the war, that means he'd probably be around 20, meaning that he would be 61 in Deadpool. We will just assume that Wade Wilson had a son who would also be called Wade and would go on to become Deadpool at a later point in time. There would be no "Weapon XI" in this timeline.
1983: The "first" mutant, Apocalypse; is awoken after sensing the time and space paradox being distorted from the events in Days of Future Past. The events unfold in the film, X-Men: Apocalypse. Logan appears and has just gone through the Adamantium bonding process and escapes the facility as he is freed by young Scott and Jean as they search for the Professor and the rest of the kidnapped students.
2000: From the film Logan, we know that from what Charles Xavier says, Logan still came the school and the events at the Statue of Liberty still occurred. In what way, we don't know.
2004: According to the film, Logan, last known mutant was born in 2004.
2013: From the film, Logan; we see a Samurai sword on the wall when he is in Mexico. Since the events have been altered, Yoshida would have been unaffected as he was on the other side of the world in Japan building his empire. We don't know if or how these events were altered, but, we do know that in some way, the events of the Wolverine had happened. Granted, Logan would not have been haunted by the memory of Jean Grey since she is still alive and the events of X-Men: the Last Stand did not happen.
2015?: Logan wakes up in the present at Xavier's school. As he wakes up and tries to understand what is happening, he sees all the familiar faces of those who died or left the school. He sees Rogue, who left the mutant life behind in the Last Stand. Logan is shocked to see both Jean and Scott still alive and well. Logan goes to the Xavier and they both seem to have a mutual understanding that they both know that time and space has been altered. This is the end of Days of Future Past.
2016: The events of the film Deadpool play out.
2018: From the film Logan, Laura aka X-23 is born in Mexico sometime in 2018.
2029: Logan.
Speculations from Logan; it is possible that Charles Xavier killed a large majority of mutants in the United States from his Alzheimer/degeneration of his brain. This most likely was strong enough to kill Magneto. Whatever this event was, it cause Logan to take Charles on the run and take care of him until he dies. However, as strong as this event was, it did not have the ability to reach out to Mexico to kill the mutants there. Therefor, it did not kill Laura and the others. Obviously, from the fourteen years after the end of Days of Future Past, Logan has moved on from Jean.
Since Scott and Jean lived and the events of the Last Stand did not happen; the potential for them to conceive Nathan Summers aka Cable is most likely. Especially since Deadpool has been breaking the fourth wall and makes mention of Cable being present in Deadpool 2.
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