Actor Keanu Reeves (The Matrix, A Scanner Darkly, Johnny Mnemonic) is eager to play the lead role in Twentieth Century Fox's proposed live action film adaptation of Cowboy Bebop, according to the MTV Movies Blog.
Erwin Stoff, a film producer who worked closely with Reeves on The Matrix and A Scanner Darkly, told the IFMagazine.com entertainment website in July that a film development deal was signed. Stoff and Reeves both emphasized a desire to remain faithful to the original work.
Reeves said that Cowboy Bebop's "Western film noir aspect, […] that kind of Old West, bordertown, low-tech science fiction aspect" attracted him to the project. He added that Stoff and the development team have already hired a writer who is penning a scene outline. Right now, the outline includes a drug, developed by the military, that is partially based on an element from the anime. Reeves explained, "We're taking the Red Eye [story], the beginning part of the series." He acknowledged that the episodic nature of the story will be difficult to adapt into a feature-length work: "[…] It's got so much of an origin-story obligation; you've got to get people up to speed, but you don't want to do much of that. There are a lot of things to take into consideration, but we think we can do something good."
Watanabe's original Cowboy Bebop series follows the motley crew of the spaceship Bebop as it travels throughout the solar system in search of the next job. The anime distributor Bandai Entertainment and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block released the 1998 television series in the United States, and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the subsequent 2001 animated movie. The anime was also adapted into two separate manga series, and Tokyopop released both manga series in North America.
Update (12/19/2008): Well, it's official, seems like Keanu's wishes have been granted. He will indeed play the role of Spike. For obvious reasons, I am choosing not to make any comments. I will just sit here and observe. Hmm, maybe one comment - I have no "problems" with Keanu, it's the mere action of adapting this revolutionary anime title. [Source:
ANN and
ICv2]
Actor Keanu Reeves (The Matrix, A Scanner Darkly, Johnny Mnemonic) is eager to play the lead role in Twentieth Century Fox's proposed live action film adaptation of Cowboy Bebop, according to the MTV Movies Blog.
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1 comment:
ahhhh....! Maybe that was the "Red" title stuck in my mind...from a anime episode that i caught a few months back, of Cowboy Bebop!...and maybe it was Adult Swim, and not nickelodeon!
huh..it would make sense, with spaceships AND old west style..
i still swear i was seeing CGI vehicles/spaceships though....
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