Speilberg sees 3-D Ghost

Dreamworks grand fromage Steven Spielberg has personally led the company's bid to acquire the rights to Japanese magna classic Ghost In The Shell and the legendary Jaws director now plans to turn it into a 3-D live-action thriller, according to reports.

Showbiz newspaper Variety says Spielberg, whose other credits include cinema classics ET, Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List, saw to it that his production company secured the rights to the project over rivals Sony and Universal.

Ghost In The Shell is set in 2029, in a world where human existence has become immersed in online networks. It follows a female cyborg working for Section Nine, an undercover unit that specialises in hunting down hackers committing crimes through the interactive networks, as she tries to find the elusive Puppet Master.

The original Ghost In The Shell manga comic was published in 1989. It has since been made into a feature-length anime film in 1995 and has inspired two sequels, an anime TV series and a number of video games. Dreamworks produced one of the sequels - Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence - in 2004.

Spielberg's first directorial outing since 2005's Munich - the much-anticipated Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull - gets its UK release on May 22nd.

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