Michael Pitt
According to foreign media, Michael Pitt, who played a villain in the American drama "Atlantic Empire", may join "Ghost in the Shell" this time, playing the villain smiley man. Previously, foreign media had reported that Sam Reilly, the actor who played the role of "Mr. Crow" in "Sleeping Curse", would play this role, but Reilly has now withdrawn. The film tells the story of the "Nine Lessons of Public Security" led by Suko Kusanagi, who handled the government's thorny cases. The film features Scarlett Johansson and Piru Esbek, who play the heroine Suko Kusanagi and one of her right and left hands, Bart.
In the anime, the character of the smiley man is very mysterious, and it is both good and evil. His story begins in 2024, when Smiley Man kidnapped the president of the "Seirano Gene Mixed Society" and, in a live broadcast of live weather reports, he angrily rebuked the kidnappers with guns for telling the truth about a government conspiracy because of their emotions. However, due to his skill, he managed to escape by leaving his face with a smiley face logo on all surveillance records. Six years after the incident, the "coincidental incident" of the "smiling man" once again appeared in the online society.
The logo of "Smiley Man" in anime
The smiley man's small face sign reads "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. This sentence is taken from the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" by the famous American writer Salinger. Holden, the protagonist of "Watchman in the Rye", has always been a rebellious, dissatisfied boy with life, and when reality makes him helpless, Holden chooses to pretend to be deaf and dumb, and the smiley man resonates with the characters in the novel.
Filming will begin in February and will be filmed in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Macau and Shanghai, with shooting in North America on March 31, 2017.