“Ghost in the Shell” studio blames whitewashing controversy for flopApril 6, 2017 - 18:08 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - When Scarlett Johansson was cast in the lead role of Ghost in the Shell – a Japanese character in the original manga – the studio probably didn't expect the whitewashing controversy to remain strong right up to release. But that's what happened, and the movie's box office flop in the US (on a reported $110 million budget) has been heavily publicised as a result, Digital Spy said. Did the controversy affect its box office earnings? An executive for Paramount, the studio behind Ghost in the Shell, has suggested that may very well be the case. "We had hopes for better results domestically," Paramount's domestic distribution chief Kyle Davies told CBC. "I think the conversation regarding casting impacted the reviews. "You've got a move that is very important to the fanboys since it's based on a Japanese anime movie. So you're always trying to thread that needle between honouring the source material and make a movie for a mass audience. "That's challenging, but clearly the reviews didn't help." What likely also didn't help was one of the movie's twists, which only served to make the whitewashing more problematic, Digital Spy said. So, Johansson plays a cyborg with a transplanted brain belonging to a non-Asian woman named Mira Killian. Or so we are led to believe. By the end, Mira learns that her real identity is actually Motoko Kusanagi (the name of the character in the original manga), and she reunites with her Japanese birth mother. That's not a good look, and Johansson has since been accused of "lying" about the whitewashing controversy, Digital Spy said. Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | Czech-Armenian military cooperation discussed in Yerevan A delegation led by the Director General for the Industrial Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic visited Armenia. U.S. welcomes efforts to define Armenia-Azerbaijan border The United States welcomes efforts to define the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, says Vedant Patel. Biden honors resilience of Armenian people on April 24 U.S. President Joe Biden has issued a statement on the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Ex-Karabakh leader moved to solitary confinement cell in Baku, his son says David Vardanyan is the son of former Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan who who is currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan. |