"Ghost in the Shell" Goes Live Action?

It seems the next big thing in Hollywood, after the comic book movie craze, will be bringing anime to live action. "Dragonball" is well underway. "Akira" is being fast-tracked by Leonardo DiCaprio. And "Robotech" is going to be Tobey Maguire's big "producer" gig. Now, Dreamworks has secured rights to bring the anime franchise "Ghost in the Shell" to the big screen. Guess who was intricate in gaining the rights for it? Mr. Steven Spielberg himself.

"'Ghost in the Shell' is one of my favorite stories," said Spielberg. "It's a genre that has arrived, and we enthusiastically welcome it to DreamWorks."

The plan is to not only make "Ghost in the Shell" a live action movie, but a forefront of the 3-D wave that will soon sweep multiplexes. Avi Arad ("Spider-Man," "X-Men," "Fantastic Four") is set to produce and Jamie Moss ("Street Kings") is set to write the adaptation. No word on a director. (It's far too early anyway.)

I hope Dreamworks (and Spielberg, if he's involved) understands that you can't pull a "Transformers" with this one. "Ghost in the Shell" has an enormous fanbase and is widely considered one of the greatest anime stories out there. "Ghost in the Shell" follows intricate police members that specifically target technology related crimes in the not-too-distant future. (That's a very vague explanation paraphrased from my friend wikipedia.) I've seen bits of the show and most of the movie, but I've yet to sit down and actually look deep in to it. I do understand how important it is to its genre though. No word on when we can expect this "Ghost."