The new Scarlett Johansson movie, "Ghost in the Shell," is upon us, sheathed in controversy. Rupert Sanders's film is adapted from the anime work of the same name, directed by Mamoru Oshii, in 1995. Fans of anime are ferociously purist and loyal, and for them, I suspect, the very notion of converting Oshii's masterpiece (as it is deemed to be) into a live-action Hollywood remake smells of both travesty and sellout. Such scorn is as nothing, however, compared with the wrath that has greeted the casting of Johansson. In the original, which started life as a graphic novel, her character was called Major Kusanagi, but in Sanders's movie she is referred to mostly as Major.

A moody, provocative adventure set in a dystopic future, "Ghost" defined cyberpunk, spawned a string of sequels and TV series, and influenced films on both sides of the Pacific. Last year, protests erupted when Paramount announced a live-action remake starring Scarlett Johansson as the crime-fighting cyborg, Maj. An agent for Public Security Section 9 who suggests a cross between a Playboy centerfold and the Terminator, Maj. Kusanagi battles the hacker known only as "The Puppet Master." But her real quest is of self-discovery: Does her "Ghost," her essential being, reside in the organic brain within her largely prosthetic body or is it part of the Web?

There are very few writers and directors like Mamoru Oshii. Having worked in both live action and animation, he has been a pioneering figure in both. What with Ghost in the Shell receiving a lot of attention as of late, I thought it best to discuss some of his work with the man himself. For most viewers of anime, Oshii is known for his early work on things like Urusei Yatsura and Patlabor. However, he is arguably more widely known for directing the 1995 anime movie adaptation of Ghost in the Shell and its subsequent sequel.

When the first Ghost in the Shell movie was released in 1995, it was revolutionary, presenting a whole new way of looking at technology, artificial intelligence, and more. Twenty years later, director Rupert Sanders not only has to live up to that legacy, he's trying to build upon it, despite being stuck in a cloud of controversy. Sanders is the director of next year's live-action adaptation of Mamoru Oshii's anime masterpiece, starring Scarlett Johansson as the Major, a futuristic cyborg in a world where the human essence, called Ghosts, can be transmitted electronically into robot bodies, called Shells. He, along with Johansson and Japanese legend Takeshi Kitano, debuted the first trailer and several clips this past weekend at an event in Tokyo, Japan. "We're taking the next chapter of this legacy very seriously," Sanders said of the franchise that has been around in various formats since 1989.