Keanu Reeves has been yearning to do a Cowboy Bebop movie for years now, no matter how many scifi movies he has to stone-face his way through — and it sounds like he's getting closer.
Right now, Reeves is working on bringing the classic Japanese series Cowboy Bebop to life with producer Erwin Stoff (who has the rights and the writer). Reeves wants to play the lead role Spike Spiegel, which is one of the coolest leads out there. Spiegel lives in a future that's more like a space western, where gangs slaughter the innocent and it's up to Spiegel to cowboy around, picking up the deadliest space criminals.
And Western is exactly the look Reeves wants. In an interview with MTV Reeves explains:
“It’s got a Western quality, a Western film noir aspect to it,” Reeves said of why he’s such a big fan of Shinichiro Watanabe and Keiko Nobumoto’s groundbreaking series. “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.”
All Reeves needs now is a production designer, and I'd love to get your thoughts on who should make Cowboy Bebop a reality.
I have to admit Keanu has the look, but Spiegel is a very complicated hero — way more complicated than, "Whoa, noodles." So I have my doubts about this casting, but still, Reeves gets big points for being a dedicated fan. Plus there's the fact that Reeves and company want to cram the whole series into one movie, which could be terribly disjointed and confusing.
“Yeah, it’s so episodic and so disconnected. We’re trying to figure out what pieces to put together to tell one story,” he explained. “Because it’s such a short form, to make a 2 hour version [will be tough]. And it’s got so much of an origin-story obligation; you’ve got to get people up to speed, but you don’t want to do much of that. There are a lot of things to take into consideration, but we think we can do something good.”
Which means should they make the entire movie, you'll get the operatic ending that we've all come to love, but can he pull this off?
[MTV]