I can’t say I’m really surprised, but with every bit of news that comes up, I find myself getting a little more optimistic about the prospects for the film. It’s a cautious optimism, but it’s optimism all the same. At the risk of repeating myself, I’m going to give Reeves a chance. It’s true that almost all of the roles I’ve seen him play (which admittedly, isn’t many) all have the same general personality — that stoic, reserved, almost confused kind of person that doesn’t really suit Spike Spiegal at all. But nevertheless, if Reeves is really an actor, then he should be perfectly capable of acting outside of his comfort zone, especially if it’s for a character he actually likes and admires. I had huge doubts about Heath Ledger being cast as the Joker, but look at how that turned out. I think it’ll be really interesting to see if he can pull it off and perhaps grow as an actor.

Another point of optimism is the fact that so many original staff members seem to be involved. I’m thrilled to see that Shinichiro Watanabe, among others, will have a hand in producing. Reeves had mentioned wanting to stick as close to the source material as possible, and while neither he nor Watanabe will be the director, I can hope that their influence on set will gear it in a canonic direction. And anyway, Bebop’s story and plot is much more flexible than say, Dragonball‘s, so I think any changes they do make will be less of a deal; they should be able to integrate everything much more smoothly.

I’m still interested in knowing who the rest of the cast will be and whether any of them will be cut from the movie for the sake of brevity and relevance (I would much rather see characters cut then having to split limited time between too many characters). Though I love both characters, I think that both Ed and Ein are pretty expendable, especially considering that they’d likely be the hardest to cast for. For Ed, they’d have to hunt down one hell of an androgynous kid, and for Ein, anything less than a perfectly trained Welsh Corgi will send fans into a rage. Because I’m not too knowledgable about actors, I don’t have any ideals for Jet or Faye, but I feel like their achetypes are common enough that it won’t be too much of an issue (the fact that I like Jet and Faye both less than Ed and Ein will also mean I’d probably be less critical).

Someone on the ANN forums mentioned his/her desire to know about the musical credits of the film — what a damn good question! I’m kind of surprised no one else has really brought it up before now. The music in Bebop is a huge part of the experience, and I’m not sure I can really imagine Bebop without it. If they can get Ayumi Hamasaki to do music for Dragonball, will they be able to convince Yoko Kanno to come back and reprise her role in Bebop as composer? Personally, I wouldn’t mind just recycling music from the anime series or animated movie if they can’t get Kanno, but I understand that’d kind of be a cop out. Would it be the same with someone else? There are plenty of talented composers out there, and even though you don’t hear a lot of jazz in films these days, I’m sure there’s someone that can pull it off… even so, will it be the same? Sometimes I think that fans attach too much importance to the original people, but sometimes, there’s a good reason for that.

Reactions across the community thus far seem pretty mixed, but I wonder about how people’s opinions will change as more is revealed about the project. Right now, I have higher hopes for this than I’ve had for any other live-action adaptation by an American company. Part of that is simply because Bebop itself is more accessible to the mainstream than a title like Dragonball. Sci-fi can be mainstream, especially if it’s filled with badasses and busty women. Serenity was a box-office flop, but I kind of blame that on the fact that it was a sequel. Bebop won’t be a sequel. I can see non-anime fans watching and liking it if it’s done right. At the very least, they will be able to take it more seriously than they could Speed Racer or can Dragonball. The former demanded you know and appreciate the original cartoon. The latter will demand that you be missing part of your brain.

More wait and see. I wonder if it’ll really be done by 2010. Seems like a huge stretch, but hey, so did the whole Reeves thing at first.

In other news, this is my 100th blog entry here. :3 Go me.

Spike and friends are blasting off on a new adventure as plans for a live action film adaptation of TOKYOPOP’s Cowboy Bebop have just been announced! Keanu Reeves (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Matrix trilogy) will star as Spike Spiegel with Erwin Stoff (I Am Legend) to produce.

Of course, TP can’t be considered a reliable source as they have nothing to do with the film at all. (I love how they claim Cowboy Bebop as their property.) They’re just using the tidbit to promote the Cowboy Bebop manga they have. The article they link doesn’t explicitly cast Reeves as Spike either (or at least, it cites an interview that’s already been torn apart by the aniblogosphere and the general consensus seems to be that he really wants the role, but it isn’t a sure thing yet).

I think they’re just jumping the gun on that announcement, but I don’t think I really care at this point.

I said in July that I’m willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt on his potential as Spike. At the very least, I’m comforted by the fact that Reeves is a genuine fan, which should seriously help him adjust to the role should he get it. I don’t know enough actors to be able to suggest a better suitor anyway. But since the rumors of July seem to be holding pretty well for the most part now, I’m wondering if the bit about Bebop’s production being accelerated for a 2010 release is going to end up being true also. If that’s the case, I really want to know who’ll be signing on for the rest of the cast, as well as who’ll be directing it.

I think Jet would be easy enough to cast for. He’s the most archetypal of the lot. Ed and Faye I’m worried about. I can’t decide who I’m worried about more…. probably Ed since she needs to be very androgynous and very quirky to work right. I’m also wondering if they’ll be able to secure a trained Corgi for Ein? Or would a different breed be easier? I don’t expect them to cover everyone’s origin stories, and Ein would be pretty easy to cut out completely if it came down to it. (So would Ed, for that matter.) Hmm. Honestly, there’s a lot that can be sacrificed with Bebop since the series is so episodic. If they want to incorporate the ending, then it’s more Spike’s story than anything else. I guess we’ll see. I’m cautiously excited about this.

It isn’t really that I have anything against the man. He suited Neo for the Matrix trilogy, and I liked him in Constantine. I haven’t seen any/many of his other movies though, so that’s all I have to go by. I just don’t feel like his on-screen presence and personality suits Spike at all. Neo was quiet, questioning, and reserved. Constantine was a little more fighty, but still didn’t read as badass, and we all know that Spike is badass. He’s snarky and sarcastic and impatient. I just can’t picture Reeves being like that. Does he play a similar character in any of his other movies?

If the rumor is true though, I’d be willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. After all, no one was excited about Heath Ledger taking over the Joker initially, and we all saw how that turned out. But if Reeves does turn out to be Spike, that’d makes me wonder — who else will be cast for this movie? More big name actors? Or shall the rest be a motley lot? Honestly, I don’t know enough actors to be able to stipulate who would be a good option. Japanator’s accompanying picture to the original acquisition announcement provides some very unlikely choices, though unlikely as it is, Johnny Depp as Spike Spiegal is interesting to consider. As much as I love the man, I’m not really sure he’d suit the role either. But I’d have more confidence in his abilities to adapt to it as I’ve seen him do it for a lot more movies than Reeves. Hmm.

The rest of the rumor stipulates that the movie will be put on the “fast track” and be released by 2010. I find this highly unlikely since I think most studios would want to wait to see how Dragonball does in the box office first before blowing too big a huge budget on a niche film. Then again, unlike most anime titles, Cowboy Bebop would be more readily accessible to a general audience because many of the storylines are standalone, there isn’t too gigantic of a cast, and the themes are popular enough in general. FOX hasn’t even made any official announcement about this yet anyway, so I’m definitely taking these rumors with a huge grain of salt, but it’s fun to speculate, I suppose.

Hm. Whoa. Whoa, what? Poking through Keanu Reeves’ Wikipedia article reveals that he’s on the cast list for the live action Akira? What? When did that happen?? If he’s on for Akira, I can only imagine that he’d be casted for either Tetsuo or Kaneda. The Akira wiki article says that Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are signed on for Kaneda and Tetsuo, which I can kind of see working out okay. Where does that leave Reeves though? The mad scientist? The military guy? Unfortunately, I haven’t read the Akira manga, so I can’t guess about any of the characters that weren’t in the movie. Curious, though, very curious. Considering Akira is supposed to also come out next year, I’m kind of surprised we haven’t heard that much about it…

Oh, hey. I completely forgot that they’re also doing a Ghost in the Shell live action. Who’s badass enough to play Motoko Kusanagi!? She’d probably be even harder to cast for than Spike. Eesh.

As it is now, many of these anime-to-live action projects seem die in the planning stages or are otherwise met with delay after delay. Is Battle Angel Alita still on? Why haven’t we heard much about it if it’s slated for 2009 also? What about live action Evangelion? Let’s not forget that a live action Akira was confirmed in February. I’m probably already leaving out half a dozen other titles that have been “confirmed” at one point or another in the last few years. Speed Racer was the first to see the finish line (correct me if I’m wrong), but it was a huge box office disappointment (they still haven’t made back their budget). What’s going to happen to the rest of these projects?

Cowboy Bebop seems like a good investment considering the almost universal popularity of the series amongst American fans, but that also means that a lot of people are going to be very, very critical (myself included). Still, critiques can’t come until after people have seen the movie, which would mean that it still has a pretty good chance of doing well at the box office. Besides the obvious fanbase, Bebop is also what I would consider a rather accessible series — space mercenaries is a pretty popular sci-fi concept anyway and I don’t think a general audience would feel all that alienated. Then again, Serenity was also a box office flop despite good reviews and a cult following, but that may have been because it was intended as a conclusion to Firefly and not so much as a standalone piece. Is Bebop as popular as Firefly was? Does that underground popularity really even matter? Or is Bebop “mainstream” enough to for the fanbase to really count like it obviously does for huge comic franchises like the Bats and Spidey?

The fanbase question really makes me wonder about how well the Dragonball movie will do, but the fact that it’s Dragonball and not Dragonball Z and the fact that it’s being released half a decade after the peak of the series’ popularity kind of negates the experiment. If they made a live action Naruto or Bleach right now, what would happen? Or even, if they dubbed the live action Death Notes for theatrical release Stateside, what would happen?

But yeah, fanbase is only a fraction of what Bebop would need to be successful in the box office. Being able to act as a standalone piece is probably the most important thing, as well as allowing itself to be taken seriously by an audience that’s unfamiliar with it. Speed Racer probably failed because it was too much of an inside joke. Serenity probably failed because, while the subject matter was accessible, the storyline was not. Depending on how much of the overarching storyline they want to incorporate into the live action Cowboy Bebop, it could overcome both those difficulties rather easily, I think. Stoff mentioned being worried about staying true to the source material, but considering the source material is largely episodic, I think they have a lot of wiggle room as far as canon is concerned.

The cast is a huge point of fan approval, but I don’t think it matters as much as the story. Sure, it’d be great if they can get in good actors, but good scripts can hide bad actors much more effectively than good actors can hide bad scripts. Anyway, we’ve still yet to see how well white boy!Goku performs. They’ve announced the rights, but I doubt we’ll be hearing much else about this live action Cowboy Bebop any time soon. We’re still waiting on Battle Angel and Eva, after all. Dragonball’s performance will likely be very influential though, and we’ll see what Hollywood decides about popular anime live action adaptations after that.