Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

From Super Hero Hype:

Ghost in the Shell could work as a live action movie IF they got the right director, writers, and actors. Giving it to so worthless hack like the guy from that Snow White movie is NOT the way to go. Next thing we know, Kirsten Stewart will be Motoko.

But hey, she has the emotionless portion of being a robot down.

I'll start paying more attention to this potentially becoming a movie when I hear that it'll take place in Japan, and the main actress will be asian. Ever since Goku and the kids for Air Bender were caucasian(except for the evil fire kid), I've learned to not hold my breath with these kind of things. Especially when I heard that James Mcavoy and the vampire guy from Twilight was going to be in Akira...

Its been so long since i have seen the original movie, but unlike Akira, i don't remember anything profoundly Japanese about the film. In fact i believe the locations in the manga were fictional. While i disagree with whitewashing a story, i think the story has a lot more to do technological borders than national borders so as long as the setting is "the future" i don't think the story will suffer... The westernized Akira however, sounded like a disaster.

If I recall correctly, I thought Spielberg wanted to take a stab at it by filming it like "Tin Tin." I think that actually would be the best way to approach it because they could capture the look of the main characters and have a sense of realism with the top notch animation. I'm surprised that studios are still interested in live action adaptations of anime/manga. I would think Speed Racer and Dragon Ball would scare them out of it.

Did the non-enhanced version of the original ever get 1) a DVD release with the original end song, and 2) a proper HD master and Blu release?

^The original version of the film is currently en-route for a nice, anniversary Blu-Ray release.

On a tangential note, has he theatrical cut of the original film ever gotten a proper remaster as anything besides and interlaced extra and gotten released officially?