Rupert Sanders, who directed a live-action film featuring the heroine of the first animated feature of them all (Snow White and the Huntsman), has been tapped by Dreamworks to helm a live-action film based on the manga and anime property Ghost in the Shell, which was created by Masamune Shirow.  Shirow’s original manga, which was published in 1987 and appears ever more prescient with its vision of a computer-dominated future replete with hacker villains, spawned three anime movies, an anime TV series (Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex), and three videogames.
 
The process of making a live-action movie out of Ghost in the Shell began way back in 2008 (see "'Ghost in the Shell' Live Action Movie") when Dreamworks acquired the rights.  Avi Arad, who helped Marvel Studios get established, has long been attached to the project (see "'Ghost in the Shell' Movie Closer"), which finally appears to have gained some momentum.
 
Deadline reports that the decision to push ahead with the live-action Ghost in the Shell and hire Sanders was based on the studio’s confidence in a new script by William Wheeler, who previously wrote The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Entering Hades, a serial killer drama that Robert Schwentke is slated to direct.