Natsume Maya is reporting that a spokesman for Dreamworks told the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper that Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, the second anime feature film based on the Ghost in the Shell manga of Masamune Shirow, will get a U.S. theatrical release in at least ten cities in the fall 2004.  Dreamworks, which is distributing the film outside of Asia, will also release Ghost in the Shell: Innocence in Europe this year.  The film opens in Japan on next Friday, March 6.

With the Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex TV series debuting on DVD and on the Cartoon Network this July plus the release of the Ghost in the Shell: Innocence feature film in the fall, Ghost in the Shell should be one of the top anime properties of 2004 here in the U.S.