'Maleficent' Actor Sam Riley To Play Main Antagonist In 'Ghost In The Shell' Live Action Movie

"Maleficent" star Sam Riley has been cast in Dreamworks' "Ghost In The Shell" live action movie.

According to Variety, Riley is set to play the film's main antagonist, the Laughing Man, "a hacker capable of such feats as hijacking multiple video streams simultaneously, taking over someone's cybernetic brain entirely and editing his own images out of someone's cybernetic eyes, and all in real time."

The British actor is set to star opposite of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" actress Scarlett Johannson, who plays the film's lead.

Pilou Asbæk, Johansson's co-star in "Lucy" also joins the cast as Batou, the main character's sidekick.

"Snow White and the Huntsman" director Rupert Sanders will helm the adaptation of Masamune Shirow's animated feature under Paramount Pictures.

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

The "Ghost In The Shell" live action movie will likely center on a female cyborg who leads a team of covert operatives, battling cybercrime.

Shirow's "Ghost In The Shell" was orignally a manga comic published in Japan in the late 80's. Visionary director Mamoru Oshii adapted the story into an animated feature in 1995.

Oshii's film gave the franchise global prominence, resulting to a TV series, titled, "Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex." The show aired on Animax in 2002, and ran for a second season.

"Ghost In The Shell: Innocence," the sequel to the 1995 film released in 2004 and featured Batou as the film's main protagonist. A follow up titled, "Ghost In The Shell: Solid State Society" arrived in 2006.

The latest installment to the franchise, "Ghost In The Shell: The New Movie," released in November this year.

According to Franchise Herald, Dreamworks' "Ghost In The Shell" live action movie arrives in theaters on March 31, 2017.