Entertainment news source Variety reported on Tuesday that Dreamworks and Paramount's live-action Ghost in the Shell film project has cast Danish actor Pilou Asbæk in the role of Batou, "the best fighter in [Section 9] and second in command." He joins lead actress Scarlett Johansson ( The Avengers , Lucy , Lost in Translation ) in the film's cast.

Asbæk previously performed alongside Johansson in the 2014 film Lucy , and will star in Timur Bekmambetov's upcoming Ben-Hur remake as Pontius Pilate. He will join the cast of the sixth season of the Game of Thrones television series. United International Pictures' Danish arm highlighted Asbæk's scenes with Johansson in Lucy :

Variety also described the live-action Ghost in the Shell film's story:

Ghost in the Shell follows a female special ops cyborg who leads an elite task force called Section 9 for Hanka Robotics. Section 9 is devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists, led by The Laughing Man whose singular goal is to wipe out Hanka's advancements in cyber technology.

Rupert Sanders ( Snow White and the Huntsman ) has signed on to direct the film. Jonathan Herman ( Straight Outta Compton ) is reworking the earlier drafts of the script written by William Wheeler ( Hoax, The Reluctant Fundamentalist ) and Jamie Moss ( Street Kings ). Deadline reported earlier this year that Johansson was offered US$10 million for the lead role.

Dreamworks and Paramount are co-financing and co-producing the film. Paramount will handle the international release of the film and Dreamworks will handle the release per its original deal with Disney.

The film is set to open on March 31, 2017. Filming will begin in Wellington, New Zealand in January 2016.

Disney initially scheduled its release of the live-action film for April 14, 2017, but announced its plans to push forward the release in April. Disney's Touchstone Pictures banner has been distributing Dreamworks films since 2009.

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. Avi Arad (formerly of Marvel Studios as well as of the Spider-Man and X-Men movie franchises), Seaside Entertainment's Steven Paul, and Mark Sourian ( The Ring Two ) are producing.

The American arm of Kodansha began reprinting the manga in 2009, after Dark Horse Comics had the license. Kodansha also launched two new manga series based on director Kenji Kamiyama's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex television anime series that year. In addition to Mamoru Oshii's two anime films and Kamiyama's two Stand Alone Complex television series and spinoff feature, Shirow's manga also inspired the recent Ghost in the Shell Arise prequel anime with its own tie-in feature film release and television broadcast. (Dreamworks distributed Oshii's second film in North America.)

[Via /Film]