Ghost In the Shell likely to lose $60M...

I doubt it really was the casting that was ultimately responsible for Ghost in the Shell's failure: this film should never have been made on such a big scale in the first place. A more daring (and possibly R-rated) film with a budget half that size could have been a critical and probably also financial success.

Ghost in the Shell is a typical example for Hollywod's current tendency (Logan and Deadpool excluded) to try to reshape every IP it can get its hands on into a big-budget film for a mainstream audience (a so called "4-quadrant film which works for both male/female kids and both male/female adults). But not every IP lends itself to be this kind of blockbuster, and studios really should know better by now, after they failed miserably in their attempt to redo formerly adult oriented material like Total Recall, Robocop and Terminator as sanitized, dumbed down mass entertainment.

The main reason why those tentpoles are often so sterile and "harmless" isn't so much the MPAA with their weird restrictions for a PG-13 rating, but how studios view their PG-13 tentpoles and what they expect from them. Many people don’t realize that a significant chunk of the audience for a typical PG-13 blockbuster are children aged 6-12 years (or younger; there is no age restriction for PG-13 films, and not even small children are legally required to be accompanied by an adult if they want to see a PG-13 film). And the studios are very much aware of this, in fact, they even rely heavily on that very demographic with their projected box office calculations. So if the film has to aim for a PG-13 rating, the studio will demand a simple plot from the writers even very young kids can follow (unless the filmmaker has the kind of creative control guys like Spielberg, Nolan, Jackson or Cameron have).

The original 'Ghost in the Shell' was decidedly not for children: it was a dark, complex and deeply philosophical masterpiece of cyberpunk, and to be fair, the filmmakers tried to keep that dark vibe in the new version. But due to the studio's demand to have a 4-quadrant movie, they were not able to keep the complex, deep themes and story. The result is a film which is too weird and dark for kids and young teenagers (who are used to watching more straight forward Marvel/DC types of sci-fi/action), but it's too simple and derivative for adults (especially for fans of the original).

Lesson for Hollywood: Don't remake Akira as a PG-13 (intended) franchise starter on a budget of over 100 million dollars.