Interest

Director Oshii Interested in a Hollywood Patlabor Comedy Remake 'Like Ghostbusters'

We're a week out from the premiere of Hollywood's Ghost in the Shell movie, but Mamoru Oshii, the director of the original 1995 film, already has an idea of which work from his portfolio he'd like to see Hollywood tackle.

In an interview with IGN, Oshii said that he'd like to see Hollywood take on Patlabor, the mecha police anime that he and a group of creative collaborators developed in the late 80s-early 90s. He thinks it would be interesting if the movie changed the setting to America, and if it made it a comedy "like Ghostbusters, that could be fun."

Patlabor – in particular the series and the original OVA – certainly has no shortage of comedy stories of cops getting into situations way over their pay grade, so the material is there. But what could a Ghostbusters-like American-set Patlabor be like? Feel free to speculate on which Hollywood actor they'll cast for the characters' American equivalents.

Patlabor already has a live-action sequel in Japan titled The Next Generation -Patlabor-, which had a seven-part series in 2014, and a film in 2015. According to producer Tarō Maki, a new project for the franchise is starting.