Woah. Fox is producing a live-action adapation of the beloved anime series Cowboy Bebop, with Keanu Reeves starring as space cowboy protagonist and all-around cool dude Spike Spiegel.
Keanu Reeves, who has played everything from cyberpunk Jesus to dude-who-fires-a-gun-in-the-air-whilst-screaming-argh, can add a new title to his repertoire: anime action hero. Fox is bringing the classic series Cowboy Bebop to the silver screen in a live-action adaptation, and Reeves is attached to star as protagonist Spike Spiegel.
And the cries of blasphemy rained down from Mt. Otaku. It’s alright, though – fans can take heart that their beloved Bebop won’t be completely in the hands of those evil Hollywood franchise destroyers. Also on staff for the film as associte producers are Shinichiro Watanabe, who directed the series and its follow-up Samurai Champloo, as well as Kenji Uchido, president of Sunrise, the studio that produced the original series, according to Anime News Network. No word on whether Yoko Kanno, who was responsible for the series’ distinctive blues and jazz tinged soundtrack, is on board.
Regardless of whether or not you think Reeves can pull off the part of Spike, a intergalactic bounty hunter who plays it cool but has a closet full of demons, the man does have some fanboy credentials. Speaking to MTV little more than a month ago, Reeves gushed on his love of the series. “It’s got a Western quality, a Western film noir aspect to it,” Reeves said. “It’s got so much style to it, and that’s part of its appeal. That kind of Old West, bordertown, low-tech science fiction aspect.” It certainly sounds like he gets the essence of the show – he even admitted that it’s going to be a challenge to take its disconnected narrative and fit it into a feature-length film. “We’re trying to figure out what pieces to put together to tell one story,” Reeves said. “There are a lot of things to take into consideration, but we think we can do something good.”
In any case, it’ll probably be better than the Dragonball movie.
