By David on July 23, 2008
Ok, these ‘live action anime’ announcements seem to be happening with a lot more frequency. iFMagazine.com just unleashed some news regarding a live action version of one of our favorite anime series…Cowboy Bebop:
When asked about other projects he (producer Erwin Stoff) 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.”
Special thanks to Scott at Anime AICN and ANN for the tips!
How do you feel about a live action, Hollywood-style Cowboy Bebop film? Who do you think should be in it? Who should direct?
Posted in Anime News | Tagged cowboy bebop live action, cowboy bebop news
I love anime. Specifically, series involving any of the following things: weird fantasy elements, super-powers, robots, aliens, wicked humor, crazy villains, horror, ninjas and samurai. I guess that means I like a lot of anime. I am pretty particular about the quality of animation and voice acting. If the character designs and animation quality aren't of über-quality, I quickly loose interest.The first anime-related series I ever watched was Battle of the Planets - otherwise known as Gatachman. The first true theatrical anime feature film I saw was Akira. My first exposure to manga was later in life when I read Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy.There are so many incredible elements of Japanese culture. Some of the most exciting to me are the style of design and storytelling. I'm a web designer & illustrator, and I find myself looking to Japanese design for inspiration all the time.Anime blogging has taught me even more about Japanese culture and anime than I ever expected, and I continue to learn more every week. In fact, I'd love to travel to Japan. Rachel and I hope to visit sometime within the next few years.
I’d love to see a live-action, hollywood style Cowboy Bebop.
As for who should be in it…hmm I’ll have to think more about this…. but I definitely know that Shia Leabauf should NOT be Spike
Kidan – I concur, lol! Let’s make a rule: Shia Leabauf is not allowed in Cowboy Bebop. I don’t have anything against the guy, but he just would not make a good Spike. ^_^
I could see a live action Cowboy Bebop being kinda like ‘Ocean’s 11? but mixed with sci-fi and a lot more action.
it’s kinda already decided that spike will be keanu but i want to see jet played by Vin diesel.
I WAS JUST THINKING THE SAME THING!
vin diesil should definetily play jet and i think brad pitt would be the ill spike even though he’s short he got tht swagg
They should’ve made a Cowboy BeBop movie like 10 freakin’ years ago. You know, back during the height of it’s popularity. We had to wait, what, 20 years for Hollywood to get around to a doing a DBZ movie? And what ever happened to that mythical Sailor Moon movie? Wake me when they actually get the movie into production…
danno! – I know! They’re a little behind on that one, lol! Maybe the studios are holding onto the anime properties until it becomes ‘retro’ and they can cash in on the nostalgia factor.
I wonder who would play Ed…
Helen – Hmmm…that’s a good question. Who would play Ed? What does everyone else think?
Dakota fanning
I would love to see it live action in Hollywood…they better do a good job at it though. It’ll either make it or break it for the animes to come.
Naruto – I’d love to see it too – if done properly. I think it’s a very challenging project but could be very good if it’s true to the anime.
My feelings for a live-action Cowboy Bebop are the same as for the Disney musicals – meh. As much as I love Cowboy Bebop, I don’t see the need for a remake in any medium.
Caitlin – I agree that Cowboy Bebop isn’t ’screaming’ to be made live action, it would still be exciting to see what they do with it!
It’s one of the inevitable aspects of the Hollywood machinations: if you have a “critical mass” for certain trends/fads/appeal (in this case, anime has become “mainstream” for American viewers, regardless of your objection that America in large still doesn’t approve of the genre) they’ll come for it.
Off-the-record, I’ll start looking at other non-mainstream hobbies.
TP – You make an excellent point. I think danno! summed it up best in an earlier comment:
“They should’ve made a Cowboy BeBop movie like 10 freakin’ years ago.”
It had ‘critical mass’ back then, but I wonder how marketable the property is now…
I think if they do a Cowboy Bebop Live Action then they definitely need Joss Whedon to be the director. He already proved with Firefly that he can do Space Cowboy well.
jelmo – Firefly was a great example of ‘Space Cowboy’ but I wonder if he’d make it too similar to ‘Serenity’?
jelmo- What’s the point of making a Cowboy BeBop Live Action Film if I can rent Firefly for the same thing? Oh wait, Whedon could make a Cowboy BeBop MUSICAL…
danno! – A Cowboy Bebop musical??? Shhhh…don’t tell Hollywood, lol!
i would watch it probably. the only thing that im concerned about is them going cheesy on the like the environment backgrounds and details of the spaceships
dekap – I would hope that they use a visual effects company like ILM or Weta. They would keep it from looking cheesy.
Okay, I am estatic and not worried at all…I think If this movie was given a hollywood budget and great casting this movie would be perfect to pull off.
Javakat – I agree, but be sure to add ‘great director’ to the list.
No, Cowboy Bebop shouldn’t be made into a live action movie. They’ll ruin it. I’m cringing about the Avatar: Airbender live action movie not to mention the Dragonball movie. Just say “NO”!
I don’t even want to think about the Dragonball live action movie, lol.
US LIVE ACTION NINJA SCROLL FILM.
Ninja Scroll would be a great live action by the team who worked on the Mortal Kombat films,Threshold Entertainment will still have the rights to Ninja Scroll so they will get into talks with Madhouse to work on the franchise and Hollywood to financed the project with visual effects to be created by Threshold digital research labs.
Thresholds Josh Wexler will write the script for the film and the story centres around a ninja Jubei who hunts the evil eights devils of Kimon. Ninja Scroll will have a Hollywood director to helm the film. Ninja Scroll will produced by Lawrence Kasanoff/Threshold Entertainment.
Thank You.
BRUCE ACOSTA
AUSTRALIA.
I think it’s AWESOMELY COOL to do a LIVE ACTION Cowboy Bebop film, now i have heard that it is true that a live action Akira is coming to theatres next year and from what i have read/been told, Leonardo DiCaprio is in Akira, well….all i am politely will say is, he better pull it off.
Anyways, Cowboy Bebop ideas:
i am thinking either John Travolta or Hugh Jackman to play as the cool Spike Spiegal, oh wait…Spike has a fighting style like Bruce Lee, so why not Jet Li, or Jackie Chan.
Faye Valentine (a woman who’s sassy, irresistible, great legs, and bod, and a little dangerous too, Kelly Hu (that’s all i can think of so far).
Ed (now i cannot think who can play the mysterious tomboyish character to make it work).
Ein (can be a real life dog/CG anim8ed).
And of course…Jet Black, now at first i was thinking Sir Sean Connery, but i was like eh? dunno (why not Michael Gregory?) who also did the voice of Gren.
Now some may agree/disagree i can understand, but it would be cool if they had some cameo appearences of the talented voice actors in the film, now as far as the story or plot of film, i will just sit back and wait and see what the writers and production crew do their thing, and i know sooner or later the franchise will be so Awesomely good, they need to do a sequel based off on Grencia Mars Elijah Guo Eckener (or Gren Chronicles), i dunno why my mind is rattling up there but just an idea, but as far as the CB:live action film….im all for it!
Just impress me when it comes to theatres!
Now, I have 4gotten, if they’re planning to do GITS: SAC Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex live action film?, please dont, i mean PLEASE DON’T!!!
I mean we all know it’s just like The Matrix Trilogy, even though i didn’t see the third Matrix, but it’s just identical.
Too much Matrix Trilogy, with AniMatrix, with all of the Terminator trilogy (including the 4th Terminator) coming out, the Sarah Connor Chronicles Tv, and of course the pilot and series of The Bionic Woman all combine, so i will tell ya right now, UNLESS you can make the film much more darker than The Dark Knight and if this film will be a really rated R almost NC-17 nudity of Major Motoko Kusanagi’s character every time she’s cloaked into a Predator-like mirage of a shield, all i am going to say to Hollywood….save your money for a better live action f/ an Anime idea.
All i am going to say in closing, is make it work, or don’t ruin a perfect masterpiece of Anime and remake it, you will cause a riot in all of Anime fans (and I’m one of them). ;D
Well, let’s not all jump on the live action band-wagon. There is a tendency to butcher anime when turned into Live Action. I wrote on my blog about how terrible the Death Note Live Action was. And sadly Hollywood money won’t do it justice. Hollywood’s new trend is CGI + Advertising – Story = Blockbuster.
Well, a live action movie would be nice but it’ll be difficult to live up to the class of the anime. One thing for sure, an american director wouldn’t be a suitable choice. Watanabe collaborating with a director would be probably the best way to go about it.
I just saw on wikipedia that keanu reeves will play spike. He’s pretty serious in amtrix but i think he’ll be pretty cool in cowboy bebop.
I’m happy and scared at the same time about this live action movie.
I love Keanue, but not as much I love my “Cowboy Bebop”. For this project to succeed Cowboy’s Fans expectation, Watanabe has to be part of the team, with no doubt. Also I’m hopping on Yoko Kanno to make the movie soundtrack.
they should use watanabe as the actual director otherwise it will end up being some dragonball crap I love cowboy bebop so shit im scared to see what is to come I want new dvds or episodes not a live action movie. The shit needs to be rated R fo sho.
Shinichiro Watanabe would be an interesting choice as director for the live action Cowboy Bebop – that’s a great suggestion! He’s directed enough anime, so he has the experience. Both Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo are both inspired by live action films, so he might be a perfect match! ^_^
I don’t know if a Cowboy Bebop sequel series would work. The series ended so perfectly for me. I immediately wanted more, yet it felt so ‘final’. Those last few episodes had that feeling of ‘this isn’t going to last forever’. It’s very poetic. As for the rating, I don’t can’t possibly see the live action Cowboy Bebop having an ‘R’ rating. Yes, there is violence in the anime…but it’s mostly in the action scenes. Another reason why it won’t be rated ‘R’ is because of money. There’s no way a major studio would risk limiting their box office potential by giving it a restricted rating. They’re gonna want this thing to be accessible to everyone…so that they can make lots of cash, lol. ^_^ Expect it to be rated ‘PG-13′.
its definitely a good idea. they are definitively going to twist it and make into a pulp fiction lite. but i can see alot of people going to the movies and watching it. for there sake they better put the tank intro music on or i will totally boycott this movie
I will gladly play Ed xD
Okay, here is what I think should be the lineup for the cast:
Kelly hu – Faye Valentine
Ellen Page – Edward
Gerard Butler – Jet
What do you think?
I heard that Keanu Reeves is supposed to play spike in the movie.
Sounds good, hopefully it will be better anticipated than the DBZ live action movie lol.
I think it will be better than DBZ I like DBZ but cowboy bebop would first of all be more live theater friendly as opposed to DBZ and second I think people who might have not watched the animated will be intrigued. lets face it cowboy bebop has a really good plot among other things and will catch peoples eyes
I have mixed feelings about a “live action” version of Cowboy Bebop. Cowboy Bebop is – in my opinion- the best anime series out there and it is going to be interesting to see how Fox is going to pull this stunt off without screwing up. I really don’t like that they casted the craptastic Keanu Reeves to play Spike – come on there are a whole lot more better actors out there who can play the lead protagonist way more better then Keanu can, all he does is mumble in all his roles.
My hopes are that Sam Raimi will be the director. I think he’ll be able to capture all things that made Cowboy Bebop so fun to watch.
Jet i can see either Gerard Butler, Hugh Jackman or Ron Pearlman, one of them for sure… and DEFINITELY Kelly Hu as Faye Valentine… and well Keanu Reeves as Spike