Jan 19 2009 Keanu Reeves is a Cowboy Bebopper

THR is reporting Keanu Reeves is attached to play bounty hunter Spike Spiegel, in Fox's live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. This might be considered "bad" news, considering that Reeves is in his mid-40s (the character is 27) and is not a good actor:

wentieth Century Fox is bringing the Japanese anime TV series "Cowboy Bebop" to the big screen, with Keanu Reeves attached to star as a bounty hunter traveling through space in 2071.

One of the big titles in anime, "Bebop" is set in a time where "astral gates" make interstellar travel possible. Humanity, decimated by a lunar explosion resulting from a gate accident, spread out across the solar system, as did crime, which gave rise to the use of bounty hunters.

Reeves would play Spike Spiegel, a bounty hunter and former member of a crime syndicate. Spiegel, along with Jet Black, a fellow bounty hunter and former cop, are the two pilots of the spaceship Bebop.

Peter Craig is writing the script.

Oh, well. I guess the conversion of a beloved anime into a cash-grab won't be perfect then. There will be this one flaw--that Keanu Reeves is old and not skilled in his craft--and maybe the CGI corgi's expressions will occasionally look unrealistic, but otherwise this will be the exact film of humans pretending to be cartoon characters that everyone never wanted. It's going to rob The Flintstones Viva Rock Vegas of that title before you can recall the full name of The Flintstones Viva Rock Vegas.

Thanks to all the people who sent this in, and sorry for taking to long to get to it. Don't worry--I still care.

Jul 24 2008 'Cowboy Bebop' Will Be Reenacted by Humans

Fans of Cowboy Bebop, begin writing your suicide pact: Fox is developing a live-action film version of your favorite bounty hunting space anime. From iF Magazine:

We caught up with producer-extraordinaire Erwin Stoff at the NBC TCAs where he was promoting his upcoming updated-David-and-Goliath-based show KINGS. When asked about other projects he is currently working on, Stoff, let slip some very juicy news about a very beloved anime franchise.

“I’m developing COWBOY BEBOP for Fox, but doing it as a live-action film, so I’m working on that at the moment,” Stoff tells iF. “I’m really excited to be working on it, and it’s in the really early stages. We just signed it the other day.”

“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,” he says. “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.”

Miserable about the idea of watching Josh Hartnett (probably) run around in a mop of a wig, bastardizing the show you keep trying to get your less-nerdy friends to watch? Don't be! ...Yet. Wait until it's released, then criticize the shit out of it:

For those skeptical about the casting possibilities, Stoff has the following to say: “Flak about choices is meaningless until people see the movie," he notes. "When people see the movie, then criticism has a place in it.”

Fine, I'll reserve my judgment. But until then, I'll be working on preparing witty criticisms, so watch out. Cowboy Bebop? More like Cowboy Bullshit! (Like I said, I'm still working on these.)