"Ghost in the Shell" has also influenced a number of prominent filmmakers. The Wachowskis, creators of "The Matrix" and its sequels, showed it to producer Joel Silver, saying, "We wanna do that for real." "The Matrix" series took several concepts from the film, including the Matrix digital rain, which was inspired by the film's opening credits, and the way characters access the Matrix through holes in the back of their necks was taken from the film. Other parallels have been drawn to James Cameron's "Avatar", Steven Spielberg's "A.I. Artificial Intelligence", and Jonathan Mostow's "Surrogates". James Cameron cited "Ghost in the Shell" as a source of inspiration for "Avatar", calling it "the first truly adult animation film to reach a level of literary and visual excellence."