Posted by Travis in Casting, In the Works, Remakes | 5 comments
The Keanu Trend … as Spike in ‘Cowboy Bebop’?
Hmm… Keanu Reeves seems to be making a “possible” silent return to Hollywood scifi-action-hero status, with several projects allegedly attaching to him. Since ‘The Matrix’ Keanu has been more of a drama kind of target, but now we are seeing him in movies like ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ and the future ‘Plastic Man’ … now he’s apparently the front-runner to play Spike Spiegel in the live-action feature adaptation of ‘Cowboy Bebop’. Seems Keanu has lots of fan-boys in the biz. Despite his lack of range, he does seem to fit well into films like ‘The Matrix’, ‘Constantine’Â and ‘Johnny Mnemonic’. I’ve seen a few epsisodes of the ‘Cowboy Bebop’ anime series, but not enough to really know what’s going on… what do you anime fans out there think? Is this a good move or a tragic mistake?
To read the full article from FirstShowing.net, click here.
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Live action Cowboy Bebop = awesome. Bebop is the best anime to come out of Japan. As for Keanu? I am not sure…. I have nothing against him…Matrix was great and Constantine was cool, but Spike…. I guess he did all the kung fu stuff in the Matrix…ya know.. I like it!
Now the next question is who will play Jet and Faye? Ein will be a Welsh Corgi but real or CGI? and Edward? One of the sites I checked out about this had a comment about Bruce Campbell as Jet. I hope they find a sexy hot chick for Faye and make her flaunt it.
But no matter what, no matter which actor plays which character, the music must remain! It would be orgasmic to hear “Tank!” pumped out of the dolby theater speakers! Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts added amazing music to the series.
but enough about this….
Manzer, you doofus, you don’t even watch anime, how would ya know?
Anyway, I told you, the Japanese have never heard of Cowboy Bebop, so they’ll probably think this movie is some kind of new-fangled crazy American thing.
Here’s the real question: who plays Vicious?
And can they get the whole episodic feel in a two hour movie? Or will it just be Spike vs. Vicious the whole time? They can’t remake the actual Bebop movie, because it about Boris. They ought to deal with the Julia story, which will mean having Vicious in it somewhere.
Plastic Man = not going to happen.
Also, why not add he also “does seem to fit well into films like” Bill and Ted? Or would that mess up too much with your “lack of range” line of thought?…
I honestly don’t care how they make this thing, so long as they bring Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts aboard to do the music. God forbid they should add some rap accompaniment or some stupid James Blunt title track (nothing against him personally–just example) which mirrors current pop culture and could ruin the feel of Bebop.
Robert Downey Jr. should keep that black make-up from Tropic Thunder on and go right ahead and play Jet Black… Now there’s something I’d pay to see. On second thought, they ought to cast someone like Ving Rhames.
Rhona Mitra might be a cool Faye, she’s got the looks, the sexy curves and the attitude (just try and picture her in that outfit!). Though I admit, not quite spunky or fiesty enough. Ed will be almost impossible to cast but I bet someone like Ellen Page could pull it off.
As for Reeves, he’s a good actor, who many people feel is bad. Truth is he’s not really, he simply chooses bad roles. We’re talking about the guy who wowed critics and moviegoers with his cult performance in indie dramas like My Own Private Idaho with River Phenoix, and who played Hamlet on stage on the biggest Canadian venues. A critic once wrote that he was “one of the three best Hamlets I’d ever seen” (check Wikipedia). He just starres in bad movies. I like Reeves a lot, but he’s too old for the part. They need someone like Ryan Gosling. Tall, intense and carrying the aire of a troublemaker. He’s also got good comedic timing and is an intense dedicated actor.
Cowboy Bebop was one of the greatest cult pop culture achievements of the last decade or so. If Hollywood screws it up (as they do most things), its likely I won’t forgive them. Then again, that doesn’t mean I’m not looking forward to it.
‘Bill & Ted’ and ‘Parenthood’ are two examples of his early work where he played a different, younger kind of Keanu. But, they were still just Keanu. I’m sticking with my guns on Keanu’s “limited” range…