Manga is 1st installment in project commemorating Hollywood film adaptation

Dreamworks and Paramount's Ghost in the Shell live-action film starring Scarlett Johansson opens in Japan on April 7. To celebrate the film's opening, Monthly Young Magazine published a one-shot by Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex manga creator Yu Kinutani. The one-shot is titled "A Day in the Life" and follows the sniper Saito and his time as a mercenary before his left eye and left arm were replaced with cybernetic implants. It also reveals the mission where he first met Motoko.

The one-shot is included in January issue of Monthly Young Magazine which went on sale on Monday.

Kinutani's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex manga adaptation launched in 2009. Kodansha published five compiled book volumes for the original series, and released the fourth and final compiled volume of its follow-up, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex ~The Laughing Man~ , on December 6. Kodansha Comics published the original five-volume series in North America.

Scarlett Johansson stars in the film as the Major, and Pilou Asbæk ( Lucy ) plays Batou. Michael Pitt ( Boardwalk Empire ) plays the Laughing Man. Director, comedian, and actor Beat Takeshi (also known as Takeshi Kitano) plays the Public Security Section 9 founder and chief Daisuke Aramaki.

Rupert Sanders ( Snow White and the Huntsman ) is directing the film. Jonathan Herman ( Straight Outta Compton ) reworked the earlier drafts of the script written by William Wheeler ( Hoax, The Reluctant Fundamentalist ) and Jamie Moss ( Street Kings ). Weta Workshop and its co-founder Richard Taylor are working on the film.

The anime studio Production I.G pitched the rights for Masamune Shirow's original cyber-police manga on behalf of the manga's publisher Kodansha in 2007, and DreamWorks acquired the live-action film rights in 2008. Ari Arad ( Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance ), Avi Arad (formerly of Marvel Studios as well as of the Spider-Man and X-Men movie franchises), and Seaside Entertainment's Steven Paul ( Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance ) are producing. The executive producers include Michael Costigan ( Prometheus ), Jeffrey Silver ( Edge Of Tomorrow, 300 ), Tetsu Fujimura ( Tekken ), and Production I.G founder and head Mitsuhisa Ishikawa.

Source: Comic Natalie