Cowboy Bebop Forum

Well, this is a bit timely for WATCH & LEARN, isn't it? Those of you who were scandalized over the prospect of Keanu Reeves  playing Spike Spiegel… either your fears will be assuaged or your hopes will be dashed by this news. The actor's revealed in a recent interview with   Collider  that the movie’s probably dead. And a the potential of huge budget killed it. I suppose it’s fitting that the “bounty” placed on the script would be what ultimately undid it. 

I do feel like pointing, again, that we’ve sort-of, kind-off gotten a chance to see a COWBOY BEBOP movie already with   SERENITY. The crews of the Bebop and the Serenity might be drastically different, and Spike might not have a lot in common with Cap'n Mal, but they are both guns-for-hire rooting for wealth in a wild west space opera milieu.     

So spoke the man sometimes known as Constantine...

“I haven’t heard anything back [on the COWOBY BEBOP] movie.  They turned in the script and it was very expensive.  I don’t know if they’re going to…it would cost, like, half a billion dollars to make that script.  So, I don’t know where it’s at right now."

   

Actually, another thing to point is that the screenwriters must’ve gone hog wild if it’d take $500 million to realize what they had in mind. SERENITY was done for less than $60 million, as I recall, and it never really looked like they were holding back on anything. Anyway, are you lunatics pleased or peeved by this bit of news? Did you want a live-action COWBOY BEBOP?

Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of  HYBRID BASTARDS!   &   UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon  here &  here  .

In a funny sort of way I was kind of looking forward to this. I was really curious to see how it would pan out. Well I guess there's still hope just its very VERY small but then again I didn't think there was much chance it happening in the first place.

@FoxxFireArt: Well said. I could not bear to watch a live-action Cowboy Bebop film if he was Spike (I would rather force myself to watch horrible kiddy anime shows all day than watch it with Reeves in it).
 

Aye, Keanu wasn't my first option. Still need to hear about the Full Metal Panic movie starring Zac Efron of all people. I personally would have cast Robert Pattinson. Much as I hate the Twilight Series, I have to admit that Robert can act, and with his skills he'd make a great Sousuke Sagara, whereas Efron's more suited for Kira, IF AND ONLY IF he can do the evil side of it. If not, then the film would be doomed.
But yeah, live actions are gonna fail badly.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Fuck yeah! And no, I don't want to see a live-action Cowbop Bebop movie.

@adoggz said:

" too bad, I kinda wanted to see what he would do with it. Not that I think it would have been good ,no hollywood versions will be, but i think it would have been interesting at least. "

It would be Dragon Ball Evolution.

Actually, I thought Cowboy Bebop was one of the anime series that could have worked well for a live-action film, as all things considered it's more grounded in reality than Dragonball, Speed Racer, or any other project that has been bandied around would be. As I've mentioned previously, bringing live-action anime to the big screen would require more legwork to get an audience to be willing to accept it than a live-action comic book series does. 
 
Additionally, Cowboy Bebop probably has as much mainstream name recognition as Dragonball and Speed Racer (as well as, say, Sailor Moon), but without being as over-the-top as those shows. Frankly, the only other shows that I could see really being adapted or re-imagined in a live-action form for mainstream audiences is SDF Macross/Robotech or Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato (particularly if the latter was given the level of work and polish that New Battlestar Galactica got). Not surprisingly, those last two shows are being adapted for the screen, with the Japanese Yamato film making steady progress, and hopefully receiving a US release (if only on DVD). Robotech, on the other hand, is still in the script phase, and hopefully will turn out well.

Thank heaven for small miracles.

At least Keanu Reeves wants to do Bill & Ted 3.

I would have liked to see how this turned out. Oh well.