‘Straight Outta Compton’ Writer to Tackle Scarlett Johansson Thriller ‘Ghost in the Shell’ (Exclusive)

Hot off the success of Straight Outta Compton, writer Jonathan Herman has been brought in to do an overhaul on the script for DreamWorks’ anime-based live-action thriller Ghost in the Shell.

In the film, Scarlett Johansson stars as a special ops cyborg who leads an elite task force called Section 9 for Hanka Robotics. Section 9 is devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists, led by The Laughing Man, whose singular goal is to wipe out Hanka’s advancements in cyber technology.

Based on Masamune Shirow’s popular Japanese comic books of the same name, the Rupert Sanders-helmed film is scheduled to go into production in New Zealand in the first part of 2016.

The film is set to be released on March 31, 2017.

As with Ghost in the Shell, Herman was brought in to do an overhaul on the long-gestating Straight Outta Compton, writing the draft that got the go-ahead from Universal. The film became a surprise late-summer hit for the studio and is nearing the $200 million mark worldwide.

William Wheeler and Jamie Moss wrote previous drafts of Ghost in the Shell.

Ari Arad, Avi Arad and Steven Paul are producing. Michael Costigan, Jeffrey Silver, Tetsu Fujimura and Mitsuhisa Ishikawa are executive producing.

Herman wrote a new draft of the Scarface remake in the works at Universal. He also is currently in development on The Demonologist and The Birds remake at Universal.

Herman is repped by WME, Stephen Crawford at Industry Entertainment and Lichter, Grossman, Nicols, Adler & Feldman.