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Keanu Reeves Talks Monosyllabically About the Cowboy Bebop Movie


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Keanu Reeves is still attached to the live-action Cowboy Bebop movie, and it’s actually further along than “sometime.” It turns out that Reeves and crew has a plot planned out and everything, although it’s not exactly the plot of the anime (certainly you weren’t expecting a faithful adaptation, were you?). MTV reports:

The flick is currently being put together by Erwin Stoff, a producer
who has spent the last two decades working almost exclusively on Reeves
projects, and recently set the film up at 20th Century Fox. “We’ve got
the rights, we’ve got a writer,” Keanu explained. “He’s putting
together a scene outline.”

Reeves revealed that this outline for the flick is currently
focusing on the origins of the fictional “Bebop” drug developed by the
military, which provides its users with a brief surge of superhuman
reflexes and awareness. “We’re taking the Red Eye [story], the
beginning part of the series,” he explained, “and then we’ll deal with
the end of the series. We’re trying to figure out [the time frame].
We’re looking at the story right now.”

Since the beloved 26-episode show (as well as the feature film)
didn’t necessarily maintain a linear style of storytelling, Reeves said
that somewhere between the Red Eye origins and the “Bebop” conclusion,
they’ll be picking out various highlights for their own use.

“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.”

Actually, it doesn’t sound too bad, except the increased role of the “Bloody Eye” drug, and the fact that the drug seems to now be called “bebop,” an utterly needless and erroneous way to justify the series’ title. But overall, in terms of anime movies happening, I still feel this is more likely to happen than DiCaprio’s Akira adaptation. I know Akira has a script already, but I just see Bebop as an easier sell to studios.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my otaku pals over at AnimeVice are freaking out about the possibility of Keanu Reeves playing Spike Spiegel. when I first head the news, I didn’t mind, and I still don’t. Reeves is best at playing iditos (Bill & Ted, the first half of the first Matrix), silent badasses (Speed, the second half of The Matrix), or aliens. Anything that doesn’t requite him to do a lot of speaking or acting. While Spike has a pretty sly sense of humor that Reeves would probably just miss altogether, he’s generally pretty detached, and I think there are a lot worse folks who could play him. Anyone want to violently disagree?