Excerpt: Clint Mansell is composing the score for Ghost in the Shell.
Indeed, the wonderfully talented Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain composer will be handling the score for the sci-fi film, and it actually feels like a perfect fit. Ghost in the Shell is all about questioning one’s own reality, as Scarlett Johansson plays a cyborg field commander. Mansell’s work is often very obtuse and foreboding, and he’s tackled plenty of semi-horror films like Stoker and Black Swan throughout his career, so a sinister undercurrent could be just what Ghost in the Shell needs.
We recently learned that filmmaker Darren Aronofsky has enlisted Jóhann Jóhannsson to score his upcoming film, marking the first time in the director’s career that he’s not working with Mansell. In the meantime, Mansell is expanding his horizons having just worked with Joe Wright on the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive” and collaborating with Duncan Jones on the upcoming sci-fi pic Mute.
Mansell’s one of the most exciting composers working today, and Ghost in the Shell is the first blockbuster-type movie he’s tackled since his days of Doom, Sahara, and Smokin’ Aces, so it’ll be interesting to see what he comes up with.
indeed the trailer unconfortably reminds me of a movie I hoped I had forgotten: Aeon Flux..what a shame if the movie's bad, Ghost in the Shell the anime is a masterpiece.
Too bad the trailer looks like major piece of trash...
And why do you think that? There were enough shots lifted directly from the 1995 anime to give me all kinds of hope, and the cityscapes and cinematography looked wonderful.
Maybe she'll get to fight a tank at the end of this movie, too.
The trailer shows us all the coolest bits from the various movies and anime eps recreated in live action- so, yea? It also appears to be changing The Major's backstory, and using it as a driver for this movie's plot.
Clint Mansell is a fine composer, but Kawai's music written for the movies is fairly singular and Yoko Kanno is a goddess whose songs and instrumentals are a high water mark for civilization, never mind film/TV composing (I really, really, really, really, really like her music- can you tell?).
I have a huge soft spot for the music of this franchise and I feel the music used there is as integral to the storytelling as something like Goldsmith's ST-TMP score. I hope Mansell can hit those same heights for this movie.
As with you, Adam, I'm a huge fan of the music for the GitS franchise. Kawai's score for the first film—haven't heard the second—is one of my all-time favorites and Kanno composed many exceptional songs and pieces for Stand Alone Complex. I'm excited to hear Mansell's contribution. I honestly can't think of any other composers who would have me more excited. He's a great talent and perfect for the world of Ghost in the Shell.
As for the trailer, well, it really doesn't say much about the movie at all. I think it's just a not very well put together trailer. We don't really learn anything about the story. What we do get are some tepid line deliveries from Johansson (hopefully she impresses in the film proper), a lot of shots mirroring scenes in the original and the first ep of Stand Alone Complex (very cool, very promising), and what looks like a fantastic visual world for the story to live in. I'm remaining optimistic for now, if guardedly so.
The trailer doesn't look like TRASH, more of a REHASH of other films.
MATRIX (itself inspired by GITS) AI TERINATOR SIMONE DEUS EX
Speaking of DEUS EX, GitS is also a cyberpunk espionage thriller with moral implications of society transforming from flesh to machine. It's not about cyborgs but prosthetic enhancement to the point where 100% of the body is replaced literally explaining the term GHOST IN A SHELL... where a machine can remember that, in a former existence, it was once human.
From the trailer, It feels more like LADY ROBOCOP than GitS.
Sounds like a new Kenji Kawai recording to me - so maybe the score will have both composer's listed. I agree, it's stunning.
The music was played live at the event.
That makes sense then because apart from the end that IS Kawai's score for the first Ghost in the Shell. Either Kawai himself or some other composer must have written the ending newly for that sequence. I doubt that's what we'll hear in the actual film. Then again, look at how skillfully Mansell wove the work of another into Black Swan, and how cool would that be to hear Mansell do the same for Kawai's haunting choral passages?
Wow, now that's interesting! They must really want to keep his signature sound for fans of the original. I wonder if this means Mansell will weave Kawai's music throughout the rest of the score. Seems odd to have him just do the titles otherwise, don't you think?
