Rupert Sanders taking on the Ghost
The pressure is definitely on director Rupert Sanders to perform, especially since he was in charge of remaking a beloved anime classic like 1995's Ghost In The Shell.
The new live-action version, in cinemas now, centres on Major (Scarlett Johansson), a human saved from a terrible crash who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.
As she prepares to face a new enemy, she uncovers terrible secrets about her own past.
The 46-year-old English filmmaker told The New Paper during our interview at Park Hyatt Seoul: "I come to this as a fan. I watched this in arts school and it blew my mind. So I put a lot of pressure on myself.
"It was very challenging creatively and emotionally for me because there was so much riding on it, because I wanted to do the best job I could with the material I'm very passionate about."
All eyes are on Ghost In The Shell too as it is Sanders' comeback film after a five-year hiatus.
He has kept a low profile since 2012's Snow White And The Huntsman after his affair with the film's lead actress Kristen Stewart came to light and led to his divorce in 2014.
For Ghost In The Shell, Sanders tried to bring the spirit of anime to the big screen by retaining the anime elements.
He said: "I wanted to move the camera in a way that was like anime. I wanted to create a world so that you really felt that you were in this world. I didn't want to do too much visual effects...
"Sometimes you don't know (if) Batou's (Pilou Asbaek) eyes are gonna look weird, if Aramaki's (Takeshi Kitano) hair is gonna look well."
Danish actor Asbaek sports prosthetic eyes which take the make-up artists four hours to put on each time, while Aramaki sports a silver mane that seems to defy gravity.
Sanders recalls speaking about it to Christopher Nolan, who helmed the Dark Knight film trilogy and was concerned about how Batman's little pointy ears would look in a grown-up cinematographic setting.
One has to make sure elements that work in an animation translate onto the big screen as well, he added.
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