A Few Thoughts on the Upcoming “Cowboy Bebop” Remake

Producer: Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Will Not Be Origin Story – Anime News Network.

3 Arts Entertainment producer Erwin Stoff (The Matrix, I am Legend, Kings) has told the iFMagazine.com website that the live-action Cowboy Bebop film in development will not be an origin story. “We start with [the main character, bounty hunter Spike Spiegel], when he is in his present life already.” He also emphasized that the producers began the project by meeting with Shinichiro Watanabe, the director of Sunrise‘s original Cowboy Bebop science-fiction anime series. “He will be the first guy to read a script when it’s done. We’ll discuss directors with him.”

Mike’s Thoughts:

First, we’ve already mocked Keanu Reeves being cast as Spike in a previous podcast, so there will be none of that here.

Second, the involvement of Watanabe is somewhat promising, but I’m not going to hope too much. The way Hollywood scriptwriting works, by the time it gets shot it will have passed through so many hands and revisions that it’ll probably be virtually unrecognizable from the first draft–which is what Watanabe is essentially getting. Word is the story is loosely based on the concept of Red Eye in episode 1, which makes me wonder how they’re going to get the rest of the cast in (Faye? Ed?) and also the stuff about Vicious and especially Julia.

Third, if they can’t pull this one off, it probably means no Hollywood anime adaptation can ever work–because Cowboy Bebop is really the most Western-friendly anime that could be easily adopted in live action and still have an audience beyond anime fandom.

Fourth, lastly, and most importantly–EPIC FAIL if Yoko Kanno doesn’t write the music. Period.

Author: gendomike

Michael lives in the Los Angeles area, and has been into anime since he saw Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1999. Some of his favorite shows include Full Metal Alchemist, Honey and Clover, and Welcome to the NHK!. Since 2003 he has gone to at least one anime convention every year. A public radio junkie, which naturally led to podcasting, he now holds a seminary degree and is looking to become Dr. Rev. Otaku Bible Man any day now. Michael can be reached at mike.huang@animediet.net. You can also find his Twitter account at @gendomike.

2 thoughts on “A Few Thoughts on the Upcoming “Cowboy Bebop” Remake

  1. Actually, there IS an even more Hollywood-friendly anime that could be adopted. It’s Black Lagoon. But it is so much of a reference to Hollywood movies already that it might be hard to tell if any adaptation even happened.

  2. Vallen: Ah, how could I have forgotten about Black Lagoon? But it never achieved the fame or success Bebop did–Bebop had a bit of traction outside of fandom with it being shown on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and such. Black Lagoon also could have used some of the humor of Bebop too. (Not that I didn’t like it–it was one of the earliest reviews ever written for this website for a reason.)

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