Reeves Commits to Cowboy Bebop

Friday, January 16, 2009
By: Ryan Ball

His sci-fi remake The Day the Earth Stood Still didn’t exactly hold the world spellbound, but Keanu Reeves is hoping for better success with a live-action adaptation of a popular anime series. Daily Variety reports that the actor is officially attached to play Spike Spiegel in 20 Century Fox’s big-screen take on the animated Japanese TV series Cowboy Bebop.

Cowboy Bebop follows the adventures of a rag-tag band of intergalactic bounty hunters who operate out of a spacecraft dubbed “Bebop.” Ringleader Spike Spiegel is long and lean with the looks of an ‘80s pop idol and the moves of Bruce Lee, and his right hand man, Jet Black, is a muscle-bound brute with a heart of gold and a titanium arm. Rounding out the team are the beautiful, but deadly, vixen Faye Valentine and adolescent computer whiz Ed, a girl perpetually in a world of her own.

Sunrise In., producer of the anime show, will reportedly play a role in the development of the live-action version. The company’s Kenji Uchida and Shinichiro Wantanabe will serve as associate producers, as will series scribe Keiko Nobumoto. In addition, series producer Masahiko Minami will act as a production consultant. The English-language screenplay is being written by Peter Craig (Nevel is the Devil) and Erwin Stoff, who produced The Day the Earth Stood Still, is producing the pic through his 3 Arts production company.

Reader Comments

• Wendee Lee : Voice Artist : Independent

  Friday, January 16, 2009

  Wow, I guess it\'s official....
  Wish we, the US Voice cast, could be included somehow.
  Very interested to see who they pic for my role, Faye Valentine....

• OtakuLibrarian : Teen Librarian :

  Friday, January 16, 2009

  This is... depressing. Keanu could never, ever pull off Spike\'s attitude or look.

• Bebop fan :

  Friday, January 16, 2009

  I wish the same thing Ms. Lee. Although if it\'s the trainwreck many of us fear maybe it\'s best that you and the rest of the gang aren\'t tainted by it. Y\'all did stellar voicework!!! (I for one wish they\'d do this in 3d instead of live action- using y\'all as the voice team. Then I\'d actually have a bit of hope this could turn out well!)

• Michael : Student/ Economic Consequence :

  Sunday, January 18, 2009

  Ugh. Bebop is my all time favorite anime show, so to hear this gives me mixed feelings. I can see Reeves as Spike, but I don\\\'t think he\\\'ll be able to pull off the comedic timing that made Spike so lovable. I don\\\'t want to have to take an Alan Moore stance on this, but Hollywood can\\\'t possibly do the show justice. I also hope the US cast gets some sort of props for the work they did, but I\\\'m sure they\\\'ll be mistakenly forgotten and the fans will be served a great injustice for that.