From my good friend Gia Manry at Anime Vice and the Japanese-language Anime Anime blog comes the news that Sunrise is confirming that yes, they are making a live-action Cowboy Bebop movie and yes, Keanu Reeves will be playing the lead role of Spike Spiegel.
If I could actually read Japanese, I would tell you some more about these developments but I only survived one semester of it in college. Which just goes to show: Stay in Japanese class, kids!
Related Posts: Whoa… part 2: Keanu Reeves lets Cowboy Bebop plot details slip, wants to be Spike
Jason says:
As a person who doesn’t dislike Keanu Reeves I have to say that I think that he could do this. Cowboy Bebop has long been a favorite, so it’ll be cool to see how this goes.
Gordon McAlpin says:
I really think he’s fine for this. (And yes, I’m a huge Cowboy Bebop fan.) Maybe not perfect, but it doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
DJ Purkis says:
Spike’s 27. I know, because I bought my friend a model of the Swordfish-II (his racer) and there are crew bios on the box. Now, Keanu’s fresh-faced and all, but…what the hell am I talking about? Who cares? I actually don’t. I’m more worried about the acting. The acting! Seriously! Has he had a role where he emoted more than a plank?
I don’t think he’s going to fail in an epic way, or anything…I just think this could be incredible with an actor that is able to inject some character into his, ummm, character, if you get my drift. Otherwise, at best, the film will be fun, and Keanu’s Spike will be passable, like his John Constantine. *yawn*
jewelzc4 says:
Fine as long as they don’t use his voice(Steve Bloom can voice it in the live action one too,) and really teach him Jeat Kun Do, I have no problem with it.
TidyJ says:
I am honestly really, really worried about this. Hopefully he can pull it off (I kinda imagine he can), but as long as Yoko Kanno is doing the soundtrack, I think I’ll be fine.
traci says:
i think, if i had a choice of any actor, from anytime, i would want it to be early indiana jones era harrison ford.
perfect amount of humor and fighting right there.
Genevieve says:
*eyetwitch*
It’s not that he doesn’t look the part– he does. And I think Spike is weird and antisocial enough that Keanu just might be able to pull it off. It’s just that I anticipate that this movie will suck due to profoundly horrendous amounts of Americanization (not the Reevester). It could rock. But it won’t.
Unless, that is, the producers/directors/writers decide to just create their own story with the base jumping point of the Cowboy Bebop anime and characters, versus a poorly done interpretation off of the cartoon itself. Then it might still rock.
There better be jazz is all I’m saying.
Jeff says:
I… well, I don’t know what to think of this. I think I need to come to terms with the fact that there needs to be a live-action Bebop movie at all before I can have feelings about Reeves being Spike.
Seriously, though. If Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts aren’t involved, this movie will = fail.
Tyler Dent says:
man this is getting sad
if they fuck this upp
……
FingoForever says:
This is going to suck. There is no substitute for Steve Bloom’s voice! Or the effortless cool that is Spike Spiegel. Keanu couldn’t pull that off in a million years of acting lessons. I’d rather they prop a cardboard cutout of Spike, use Steve’s voice, and have the other actors talk to it than watch Reeves mangle my favorite anime character ever.
If only someone like Gary Oldman or Robert Downey Jr. was tall and lanky and half Asian…
I’m boycotting this movie.
Julian says:
I think that most people aren’t considering the fact that some mediums are just best when they are left alone. A good example of this would be the Watchmen film: not exactly the worst, but in all honesty was there really any reason for the film? Same thing here with Bebop, just because the series has live action quality or potential does not mean that it should be automatically qualified.