Cowboy Bebop: Yet Another Live Action Anime Remake
The wave of Hollywood live action anime remakes continues this week with the announcement of a Cowboy Bebop movie going into production at 20th Century Fox. The news comes courtesy of IF Magazine, who learned that producer Erwin Stoff (The Matrix, Constantine, A Scanner Darkly) is the man heading the project, and that it is still very much in the early stages. He also just happens to be the agent and manager of Keanu Reeves, so what are the odds he will be headlining this flick? I’d say pretty good.
Stoff had this to say: “I have such an enormous admiration for its creators, that our first and foremost concern is going to be a real degree of faithfulness to the tone of the movie, to the mix of genres, and so on and so forth… When I met with them in Japan, one of the first things that I brought up was the experience that we had on A Scanner Darkly, and how hard we worked to remain faithful to Philip K. Dick, and that was our big concern here.”
I don’t think I’ve seen much of Cowboy Bebop (I tried to watch the feature film at some point but I fell asleep… take from that what you will), but from what I know, it sounds like it could make for a cool adaptation. The series and film followed a group of bounty hunters (called “cowboys”) in the year 2071, who travel across the galaxy in a spaceship called the Bebop. Any Cowboy Bebop fans out there? What do you think of this new live action anime trend?
Comments (24)
I’m excited. The biggest problem with Speed Racer is that it was a kids movie. Anime will do well when made into a movie aimed at adults.
Posted by Mike on July 23rd, 2008OMG. I just choked a little.
Posted by Marina on July 23rd, 2008uhhhhhh … no.
Posted by Ian on July 23rd, 2008Okay. I really enjoy this show and after seeing what Nolan did with Batman I think it is possible to make something that is different without detracting from the original. The important thing to remember is that this story is not a super-hero story. It is a crime/neo-noir/Western of sorts. It would follow that translating the core elements of this very diverse 26 episode show would have to occur in a trilogy (that’s marketable and all that and it works here).
movie 1: sessions: 1-5,9. Getting all the players together and hinting at their backstories while establishing the complexities of the world.
movie 2: sessions: 12- 18. This would be the big expansion while characters relationships would evolve while we learned more about their pasts. It would also be more somber in tone and deal with the distopian elements of this future a bit. A good shooting location would be Detroit in the dead of Winter.
movie 3: sessions: 20,22, 24-26. Conclusions to the main driving story of Spike Spiegel.
This sort of thing will work best if they do their homework in terms of set design and strive to use actual sets and real life locations. A perfect director for this series would be Ridley Scott as it would be great to see him get back into sci-fi.
Posted by Ian on July 23rd, 2008Sean, the Cowboy Bebop movie wasn’t that great; the series is much better and you should start there it’s one of the best anime shows of all time). I don’t mind the anime to live-action thing yet. It hasn’t been done especially well so far though. A lot of anime has the potential to be translated much easier (and seriously) than superhero books. Then again a lot of adaptations should NEVER be attempted (Dragonball Z; which is looking terrible) because the basis of it is more ridiculous than your average superhero.
Posted by Ryan M. on July 23rd, 2008The movie was alright (certainly better if you’ve seen the series), but the series is one of the best animes ever IMO. Essential viewing if you’re so inclined. I’d recommend checking out Samurai Champloo too, Wantanabe’s second major work.
That being said… I can’t imagine this will work as a live-action project. I mean, just thinking about the possible casting for these roles makes my head hurt.
Posted by Derek on July 23rd, 2008Personally I think this is a terrible idea. Not only does the idea of Keanu Reaves playing the lead character of Spike make me cringe, but I strongly believe that there are certain stories that are better left to their original mediums. The style of storytelling that this anime series had was perfect for animation. If there was any chance of a decent retelling it would have to be very close to the original, such as frank millers sin city. So yeah, I can only imagine this going down hill.
Posted by Steven on July 23rd, 2008Best Anime of all time period!
Posted by theman on July 24th, 2008I love Cowboy Bebop but I’m not that enthusiastic about this, like Derek said, who would you cast for it? I can’t think of anyone I’d put in these roles and expect them to succeed, also the voices are such an essential part of the characters, I don’t think it’d even feel like Cowboy Bebop without the original voices.
The idea of Alison Lohman as Radical Edward gets me a little enthusiastic though.
Posted by Christian on July 24th, 2008dont mess with a good thing!!!
Posted by jerry colb on July 24th, 2008… Cowboy Beebop is one of(if not the most), stylish anime’s ever. In the right hands it could be amazing. The problem with Hollywood however, is for every Irom Man and Dark Knight, there’s a million Batman and Robins. I loved Keanu Reeves as Neo, however I hate Keanu Reeves as.. well anybody else other than Neo. The character Spike is one of the most laid back dudes ever, Keanu is one of the stiffest walking talking corpses ever the potential for disaster is monumental. None of what the fans say is relative anyways, these Hollywood morons will ruin a wet dream given half the chance. Personally I think Johnny Depp could pull it off(and I’m not a Johnny Depp fan.).
Posted by marcus on July 29th, 2008JOHNNY DEPP AS SPIKE???? WHAT???? no. uh uh. no way. never.
Posted by Ellie on July 31st, 2008I also agree from reading this article as well as others that while the intentions of the director might be good (he says that one of his main priorities will be to remain loyal to the original anime, so he must be a fan himself), his overuse of Keanu Reeves as the main actor in more than several of his films could truly be the downfall of this remake. As Marcus said, Keanu’s acting style and that of the character of Spike are completely different. I as well can’t think off the top of myhead of anyone that suffices as a perfect match to play the role of Spike, though I do have to agree that Johnny Depp would certainly be a better choice over Reeves (although I am still unsure of this as well). It would have to be somebody with like the body frame of Adrian Brody, but as far as personality, I can’t really think of someone right now…
Posted by Rosario on August 1st, 2008can’t wait
Posted by jc on August 3rd, 2008Johnny Deep would fit really nice for spike character btw
Posted by jc on August 3rd, 2008I LIKE TO TALK ON NINJA SCROLL.
So there is movies based on anime with Speed Racer,
Posted by Bruce Darren Acosta on August 6th, 2008Akira,Ghost In The Shell now Cowboy Bebop is going live action and there was news on Ninja Scroll live action movie developed by Threshold Entertainment.
Threshold CEO Larry Kasanoff would be getting into talks with Ninja Scroll creator Yoshiaki Kawajiri on
working on the project,Threshold will hire the Hollywood screenwriters to write the script and Kasanoff alone with Threshold to prouce the film and
Threshold digital research labs to crete the visual effects and Christopher Faloona to work as photography director.
Lets see how we get the news about the Ninja Scroll movie in the future.
Thank you.
BRUCE ACOSTA
AUSTRALIA.
I love this anime, but an American remake sounds horrid.
Posted by JNet on August 20th, 2008I’m staying optimistic. This is an anime that already has a rabid fanbase, and its similar to GOOD action flicks, so it should be an easy sell for Americans if they get a good director. Speed Racer was a little akward and it didn’t have an ice cube’s chance in hell being released so close to Ironman. I’d say release Bebop sometime in Summer.
Posted by Project2501 on September 18th, 2008I’ve got mixed feelings bout this cuz on the one hand I always think if done right any medium could be translated into another! But on the other I know Hollywoods propensity for wanting to take “artistic liberties” and “translate this for wide audiences” crap that turns most films into booty butt cheeks!
If I hear Reeves name then I already know its doing down the poop shooter! Same w/ J. Depp. They to find the skinniest laid back fighter they can! He kinda needs to look like this fool
http://www.mtv.com/photos/?fid=1600151&pid=3403433
Plus what about the babe she gotta be a freeloadin goldigger w/ soft knockers and a propensity for wearing the highest booty shorts known to man!
Posted by BlackRonin357 on January 5th, 200920th Century Fox FUCKING CAPITALIST !!
DONT SEE THIS MOVIE !! FUCKING 20th Century Fox !
Posted by Amin on April 1st, 2009Anything – and I mean anything – that Hollywood can re-make from foreign sources is a VERY good thing. With the exception of several solid blockbusters every year, Hollywood makes nothing but crap. And the biggest open secret that people in Hollywood and the media know is that it is all about the original idea or concept that is to blame. Writers in the US are suffering from writers block and it shows on the cinema screens.
Posted by Scarlet Pimpernel on July 29th, 2009Message to “Amin”: If you think 20th Century Fox is a F(*&#$* CAPITALIST, than why are you participating in this capitalist medium called the internet ?! Crawl back into your cave.
Posted by Scarlet Pimpernel on July 29th, 2009gtfo of here with keanu reeves as spike spiegal…. can hollywood not find good unknown actors? i like to see good unknown actors doing films like these and horror movies, not headline actors like keanu. thats just fail.
Posted by erik on September 24th, 2009Leave a Reply