Hollywood's plan for a live action English-language remake of seminal Japanese anime Ghost in the Shell has moved a step closer to reality after Snow White and the Huntsman's Rupert Sanders was hired to direct.

Steven Spielberg, a long-term fan of Mamoru Oshii's 1995 film, bought the rights to remake the 1989 manga comic upon which it is based in April 2009. However, his planned 3D movie failed to make it to the production stage. Spielberg's Dreamworks studio will oversee the revived project, which is based on a new screenplay by The Reluctant Fundamentalist's William Wheeler.

The Ghost in the Shell comic book series follows cyborg detective Major Motoko Kusanagi, team leader of a futuristic Japanese counterterrorism organisation focused on cyber-crime. Three anime films (one made-for-TV) have been based on the comic, of which the 1995 Ghost in the Shell was the first, as well as an animated Japanese TV series and three video games. However, the new version will be the first English language, Hollywood-produced take.

Cinemagoers who are not au fait with Oshii's film may still find many of its themes and tropes highly familiar. With its vision of a vast electronic network to which every human being can connect, Ghost in the Shell has been credited with influencing Hollywood movies such as The Matrix. The flow of inspiration runs both ways, of course: with its depiction of a part-human, part-machine detective who questions her identity, the original manga echoes the themes of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

Hollywood has a troubled history when it comes to anime remakes. Warner Brothers' plans for a live action take on 1988 cyberpunk classic Akira are currently mired in development hell. The studio had at one point reportedly planned a version starring High School Musical's Zac Efron and Twilight's Robert Pattinson in the key roles of Kaneda and Tetsuo.

Sanders, the British commercials director who made his feature film debut on 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman, has a number of high-profile projects on his slate. He is tipped to direct a biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte, a futuristic romance titled Juliet and an adaptation of the Frederick Forsyth thriller novel The Kill List, not to be confused with Ben Wheatley's accalimed 2011 occult horror Kill List.