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AICN Anime-Hollywood Cowboy Bebop In Development
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Column by Scott Green
Anime News Network points out that IF Magazine has learned that producer Erwin Stoff is developing an adaptation of one of America's favorite anime series.... Cowboy Bebop.
“I’m developing COWBOY BEBOP for Fox, but doing it as a live-action film, so I’m working on that at the moment,” Stoff tells iF. “I’m really excited to be working on it, and it’s in the really early stages. We just signed it the other day.”
“I have such an enormous admiration for its creators, that our first and foremost concern is going to be a real degree of faithfulness to the tone of the movie, to the mix of genres, and so on and so forth,” he says. “When I met with them in Japan, one of the first things that I brought up was the experience that we had on A SCANNER DARKLY, and how hard we worked to remain faithful to Philip K. Dick, and that was our big concern here.”
The 26 episode Sunrise tv series and BONES movie followed a hard luck cadre of bounty hunters in the waning days of wild west period of solar system wide colonization: haunted but slick ex-gangster Spike Spiegel, grizzled veteran ex-cop Jet Black, gambler/femme fatale Faye Valentine, incorrigible hacker Ed, and data dog Ein.
Combining artful homages to Western media, inventive direction from Shinichiro Watanabe and eclectic music from Yoko Kanno, Cowboy Bebop won over many fans when it was released on DVD by Bandai Entertainment and aired on Adult Swim.
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Cowboy Bebop to the big screen. Metal Gear Solid and now this. Awesome.
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Faye Valentine is going to be very hard to cast.
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Hell yes! That's one hell of film to create! Closest thing I've seen to it is Firefly. If they can make the universe feel sweaty and used, get the right cast and keep the music it'll be fanfuckingtastic.
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Another great anime about to be raped by Hollywood. This is like Akira. NEVER ADAPT IT!
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Oh please be good. Do it justice. Make it cool.
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Depending on how close they stick to the source material, this could be very cool. Although, I have to say that, much like Motoko Kusanagi, there is not a girl alive who is hot enough to play Faye Valentine...
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Cowboy Bebop is the one anime series I have consistently watched and I am a huge fan. That being said, I think the film worked best in its episodic form. Hell, even the movie that ALREADY EXISTS just felt like a really long episode to me. This property really belongs in the format it's already in. I'm excited, and I will undoubtedly see it, but I seriously doubt they can create anything even close to the original show's greatness. Like Dark Knight, my expectations are bound to be impossibly high.
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..Please, stop this madness
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But then realized how redundant and sort of dumb it would be to turn it into a movie. Hopefully if they go through with this they'll put some clothes on the chick, and give the villain a better name.
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Sweet! I hope they do a good job with it.
Some smart Hollywood type ought to option Black Lagoon right now for a feature film. That shit would own. -
to Speed Racer's massive failure to capture the world's attention. I was pretty sure the live-action Akira (also stupid) was going to be canned after that self-destructed.
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...Cowboy Bebop guys to animate The Dark Tower...the whole thing in a long running series.
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That was my favorite Bebop episode.
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...point of live action. If you like the series then you LOVE the characters...no live action casting can live up. It's a thankless task...
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this one has a shot at actually being good. There are no aliens/creatures to CGI, and other than spaceships and gunfights, there really isn't much as far as special effects. It's all going to rely on action scenes, good characters and dialogue, and kick-ass music. How hard can that be for Hollywood? Of course, if the Dragonball movie tanks, hopefully this one may be saved.
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Lara Croft. That just looked like a big paper mache bra. Maybe they can CG enhance them if they want to (that might be cool, big bouncy anime breasts like Davy Jones' tentacle beard! Yay!)
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There's quite a lot of young people who're into Dragonball and similar shows. It probably won't gross oceans of cash, but I think it'll do alright.
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Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at Birdland with 10 gallon hats, right? What's anime?
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This is crazy! Nuts! I'm excited and terrified at the same time!
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I love the series, but I'm wary about anyone being able to do justice to it in live action format. It's either going to be watered down, or be something different but in the tone of the source material. I'd rather see Bones just do another movie that takes place between the established eps.
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For choosing Bad directors with stupid scripts. I can't remember the last time Fox gave us a good Sci-Fi film. This is sad because they gave us Star Wars, Alien and Predator, and then went about running them all into the ground.
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but if it's bad......lame
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Just prey that it doesn't suck.
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This will go down about as well as the Dragonball film is looking. BAD. Hollywood would be much better off making a live-action version of LUPIN. Leave Cowboy Bebop as a HAPPY memory for its fans.
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Tragic. Come on, Dark Lords of Development Hell, do your thing and prevent this from ever happening. Hands off Cowboy Bebop, you fuckers. Go ruin something else.
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I'm just gonna do my best to pretend I never even read this story. Awful, awful, awful news. I may have to go up on the roof, drop to my knees, and scream NOOOOOOOO as I shake my fist at the sky in the moonlight. Really, fuck this.
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As a die hard Bebop fan, my initial reaction was joy, but that was quickly followed by "oh my god, it's going to suck." I hope they do it right, I'd be thrilled, but I'm far too cynical to believe that this will be anything more than a colossal disappointment.
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without fucking it up! Animes work because they have no bounds and they are not watered down Americanized! Fuck Hollywood can't fucking come up with any thing new so they prefer to just retard great stuff that works for a different media and TRY to make it their own! This sucks! Hell, if Hollywood can't get a fucking video game to come off as NOT EVEN a decent movie; and everything is there for a movie(characters, plot, dialogue, set, etc,) what makes you THINK an anime turned live action will work?!?! Look at SPEED RACER; that movie IS a live action cartoon and STILL many took a shit on it. That movie stuck to the source material closer than ANY movie will and STILL people dumped on it. Now, how much hated will be come when we finally start to see the fuck up versions of AKIRA! Hell, I don’t even want to start having horrible thoughts of what Faye Valentine will be. Like it was stated before, and will be echoed by more: Faye Valentine is just too hot and to complex of a character to have ANY actress protray. COWBOY BEBOP was one of the first anime series that I watch and fell in love with. And sure as HELL! don’t want it coming out like RESIDENT EVIL. Want more proof, DEVILMAN any one? And that one was made by the country that CREATED it and it STILL sucked sushi balls! Anime into live action is going to be just another genre that Hollywood WILL actually rape. Forget cartoons, forgert horror movies, here come the anime! HOLY FUCKING SHIT! Avatar: The Last Airbender is anime inspired and that’s going to get butcher by noneother than Mr. Twisted-Endings himself—M. Night Shyamalan! Oh yeah, this guy will do justice to it! The question, IF DONE RIGHT. . . rings through everyone’s mind. But COME ON PEOPLE! This is Hollywood we’re talking about! You KNOW respecting source material and fans is like toilet paper to Hollywood: just something to wipe your shitty ass. Chris Nolan, Pete Jackson and Del Toro are the only ones I see that respect the source material and the fans. (To a lesser extent Robert Rodriguez for SIN CITY.) Yeah, I know there are a few others, but those are the ones from the top of my head ok! But anime is an entire different media that works on its own as is. Try to convert it into something else and it will be just more shit Hollywood vomits out.
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As a die hard Bebop fan, my initial reaction was joy, but that was quickly followed by "oh my god, it's going to suck." I hope they do it right, I'd be thrilled, but I'm far too cynical to believe that this will be anything more than a colossal disappointment.
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Damn.
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Only in our worst, anal-rape nightmares could this come true-probalby the finest dramatic series ever presented by the Japanese animation industy, with Yoko Kanno's music to boot, and Hollywood is going to dump a big stinking wet turd all over it. Think Paul Verhoeven and "Starship Troopers", only much worse.
J-Lo as Faye Valentine-you heard it here first! -
Will the fans still see it anyway? Yeah, probably.
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And just to as piss to the wound I just found the poster for DRANGONBALL. I'm not a big big fan of it, but I did enjoy the begin of it enough to appreciate it. But if this doesn't fucking make you want to laugh till you piss your pants, then animes turn into live action will be a fucking joke just like comic book movies were for decades! Check out this shit:
http://www.latinoreview.com/news/new-dragonball-poster-5034 -
Why?? Why ruin a perfectly good series?? Is there anything Hollywood won't try to screw up?? Please leave this amazing anime alone....
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There's just no way. I want to like the idea, and I'm even digging what I'm hearing about the Akira remake (boy will I be in for a rude awakening later on.), but Cowboy Bebop is not meant for this kind of incarnation.
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..is ridiculous. There a billion different ways to make this film fail. I think I would rather see it no made at all then to see it made and mediocre.
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DO NOT DO THIS. cowboy bebop is one of my very favorite things. please don't make me have to IGNORE a crappy live action movie or make me live through conversations like... "oh you like cowboy bebop... that crappy summer movie FOX just put out?" this is the worst news. fucking hollywood.
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Good or bad news??? Anyway you can't fucking compare Dragonball to this... Cowboy Bebop stands a hell of a good chance at being awesome in live action... Dragonball is too out there and crazy to make sense as live action, other than a phoned in kids movie which is what it pretty much is... But fucking Cowboy Bebop??? Holy shit! They cannot fuck this up! They either do this right or they're asking for it! If justice isn't done here I'm gonna fly a space shuttle into the heart of Hollywoodland!
Anyway, I hope they don't go into the whole story of Spike versus Viscious arc that covers the entire series right in the first film... This is something trilogy worthy! We make the first 5 eps up to Balad of Falling Angels into one flic that introduces Spike, Jett and Faye and interweave the Viscious arc in between and end it just like in Ballad. Second film introduces the pooch and Ed with some other crazy plots intertwined from the series but removed from Spike's mob ties and past, and the third and final film will deal with the actual ending episodes of Bebop, about Faye's past, Ed's reunion with his father, Jett's ex-wife, Julia, and Spike's final face off with Viscious. Man... the truth is this is one of many franchises who's live action counterparts I've been making up in my head for years... Damnit FOX don't fuck this up I swear!!! Cowboy Bebop is legendary... and they'd better fucking use Yoko Kanno's music! TANK Motherfucker!!! -
They already did a story about space cowboys. It was called Firefly / Serenity, and it SUCKED!
Cowboy bebop ended, It was great when it was on, but now it's finished. Leave it to rest in peace! -
As wacky a part as in Fear & Loathing.
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From comics 2 film artist WeaponX
http://www.comics2film.com/DCG/art/Art5959.jpg
http://www.comics2film.com/DCG/art/Art6381.jpg
http://www.comics2film.com/DCG/art/Art6335.jpg
http://www.comics2film.com/DCG/art/Art6338.jpg -
Jul 23, 2008 1:03:57 AM CDT
~~~~~speechless over endless feces spewing out of LA~~~~~
by the marquis de side 3
absolutely
positively
without a doubt
the WORST idea
you could
EVER
please...
get some inspiration for original ideas
or leave it all up to Christopher fucking Nolan and company
or leave our childhoods+adult fan stuff in peace -- anime does NOT translate to live action
go adapt "MOBY DICK" or sumthin...sheesh...
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PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!!!! :)
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Ben Wishaw as Spike Spiegel, Scarlett Johansson as Faye Valentine, and Ron Perlman as Jet Black. As for Ed, that'd be tough to cast.
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,but whatever. I love Cowboy Bebop, greatest anime I've ever seen. If they fuck up with the american remake, then they fuck it up. It won't ruin Bebop. If it's good then it's good, if it's bad then it'll just be forgotten. No big deal.
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the same feel and dynamic as The Brady Bunch Movie...
Leave the Anime alone....please! -
great so first they start remaking everything, then they start turning every comic title into a film and now its anime.
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Erwin Stoff is a credited producer on I am Legend, we know how that turned out.If they could find someone who had the passion for the anime to bring it to a live action platform then it could really work; imagine the sfx to bring those Martian and Venutian cities to life. Oh and dogfights with Swordfish.In principle it's really cool, but I seriously doubt they'll do the anime any justice.
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So no complaints about hiring western actors.
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In modern times, every American remake of any japanese cultural artefacts like anime has taken out anything that was good about it, anything quirky, non-pc, etc and regurgitated it with all the good things taken out. LEAVE THIS IP ALONE YOU FUCKING DOGS.
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To do justice to the series and the over arching storylines. First film - Faye joins the team and combine it with story from ballad of fallen angels. So we get spike story and a cool fight at the end.
Second film - introduce Ed, have the main stories be about jet and Faye's past, leave a bit of a teaser to set up Spike's story finishing in the third film.
Third film - finish spike's story. Have faye going off with ed to find ed's dad, perhaps have that at the end of the second film and faye comes back in third. Pretty much just do the last few eps of the series in film form.
Spike will be the most difficult to cast. -
please dont let it suck..
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Will one of the admins here PLEASE ban that fucking spambot "prettybaby"?!?!?! Back on topic... I weep for this project because, though I love the everfucking shit out of Bebop and have once or twice fantasized about a live action movie that would work, I know that such a thing is impossible. Oh, and Johnno... Ed is a girl.
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Oh wait, no he doesn't. Please do not make this movie...please.
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Yes They Can Fuck Up Cowboy Bebop! Hollywood can do its worst! Remember, we're living in the post-"Phantom Menace" period, when Nothing is Held Sacred.
Andrew Dice Clay as Spike Spiegel: Q.E.D. -
Jul 23, 2008 7:57:17 AM CDT
Are the Blade Runner street sets still up somewhere?
by iowa snot client
If they use those sets and cast me as Spike, I'm OK with this. Otherwise, please don't bother.
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jesus, fuck no. And someone burn akira in the fires of development hell too, please. Is spikes hair still going to be green?
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About Japanese culture, you pretentious asshole? We got two atomic bombs that say we're better than they are. Anime sucks. The title "Cowboy Bebop" is RETARDED, like most anime titles.
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reservoir dogs is an amazing title for a shoot em up/indie heist movie? but you shit out your opinion with absolutes like "anime sucks", and call other people pretentious?
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Yeah that was a bit harsh; it's a gross exaggeration of how I really feel. But rage is my initial reaction to any Westerner who is taking up arms to defend Japanese culture. They can defend their own fucking culture, and honestly does it matter? Most people on here seem to agree that it's best left as a subtitled anime. Seeing a fat guy from Iowa get pissed off because I don't understand the nuances of Japenese customs is just... fucking frustrating.
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I made a slip there... Anyway Bebop could work considering that the cast of the main characters can be white and the people who populate the world are all international. Basically a tossed salad of ethnicities who immigrated into space. And I'm sure we can find some young child looking actress to play Ed. Hell just get a cute unknown tanned Japanese tomboy looking actress. It could work!
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Anyone here a Champloo fan. I love that show and would be psyched to see an additional season arc. Mugen and Jin are unquestioned badasses.
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Just like most animation in the US sucks, but the good stuff Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and anything Watanabe touches is far better than any adult themed animation you'll see in the US.
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IMDB lists him as producer of the -(gasp) - Day The Earth Stood Still remake, and is also listed as Keanu Reeves' agent. Yup, my friends and I called this about five years ago. Whoa.
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...nobody can cut and paste like you, bro!
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Spike = Eric Stoltz / Jet = Ice Cube / Valentine = J-Lo / Ed = John Voigt / and Data Dog = Giant fucking snake
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...would be cool in this film as Spike.
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...can we please do something about the girl in the pre-talk back advertising that goes around New York showing her armpits to everyone. That is really not right.
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so much as thinks about reading the script for this... FAIL.
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but most anime is pretty bad. But that goes for anything. Every entertainment media is largely populated which stuff that is nothing but major suckage. Anything from Miyazaki is great or Satoshi Kon. And frongbak, I liked Champloo but didn't love it like I did Bebop. Also Cowboy Bebop is one of the coolest names so I don't know what you're talking about. You know what anime people should watch if they haven't? Millenium Actress by Satoshi Kon. Brilliant movie.
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Cowboy Bebop, has so much potential. This sort of thing should prompt enthusiasm, but it's not, at least not for everyone. First of all, saying shit like "Americanizing" pisses me off to no end. Do some of you truly think all americans are incapable of being artistic and cultured? Bullshit. America is viewed as "the Big Dog" even by those who hate it, because of that whatever we put out there can never be considered art, because it is also so mainstream commercial because as America....we ARE mainstream, and anything outside of that we view as "different", therefore it's automatically artistic. Our creativity has been sucked dry because we became "hollywood" the place where movies go to make money, while these other countries who are breeding talented directors and writers live in a completely differnt world where the values of storytelling are not completely lost, and it makes me sick inside to realize that americans regard it as just a way to make money, but it's not really our fault. I love america, but i cant lie to myself and try to defend it here, hollywood is a monster, im not gonna say this shouldn't be done, its got potential, but its like flipping a coin, we could get a talented director or a smuck. This movie could go either way, but it makes me sick that people automatically think this'll be americanize and will suck, but it's not like i can deny it, it probably will. So we've gotta change. American "artists" are being breastfeed stuff like transformers, fast and the furious, pirates of the carribean, which may have not been bad movies originally, but the viewers tend to not focus on the things that made them good more than the action or cool effects. Thats why america has lost its creative voice. These other countries (SOME of them) seem to breed directors with an understanding of HOW TO TELL A STORY because they are far enough away from mainstream to not be polluted by it, while the amercan kids are so easily and frequently fed crap that passes for entertainment that they have never been exposed to anything else. How can we change this? We gotta stop with the REMAKES SEQUELS AND ADAPTIONS!!!! for starters... ART is about being bold, brave, and taking chances..doing things that have never been done before can be scary, but we've gotta get over this fear
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Is how everybody who hasn't been thoroughly exposed to anime will laugh at the title when the trailer is presented. It's just too silly. It's like "Shonen Jump" or "Oh Me My, Strawberry Eggs!" The subject matter is decent movie fodder, but I also feel that adapting anime is something that just doesn't translate well. Just like the title.
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I jest, I jest.
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Will Smith as Spike?.......the idea isn't as painful as the idea of someone suggesting it...but still pretty bad, unknowns all around I say, IT IS FOR THE SAME REASON WE LOVE SEEING REMAKES THAT WE LOVE SEEING THE SAME ACTORS PLAYING EVERY FREAKING ROLE IN EVERY MOVIE OUT THERE, keep fame to a minimum, hire unknowns.
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Mathew Fox for Spike, Megan Fox for Faye, and Jamie Fox for jet...couldnt resist actually.....that doesnt sound too bad
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and bring Russ Meyer back from the grave to direct it.
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Richard Linklater to direct!
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then this will be shit. Actually fuck it, don't do it!! I don't want to see this series get ass raped!!
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I like the idea of Matthew Fox as Spike it works. My first stab at the character be Adrien Brody as Spike. Sophia Bush as Faye, and Clancy Brown as Jet.
As for the idea of turning this into a live action movie, don't unless you know the story. The movie took place between Session 22 and 23 so there was the history and scars element present. But to do respect to the series you need to do the research and homework. However, since this is Fox we're talking about I'm assuming its going to suck and will be out for the snatch and grab then be forgotten in Wal-Mart $5 bins. -
...as the lead role? Are you some sort of racist? (Actually, no, I was kidding up there with the Fresh Prince suggestion. You know...sarcasm)
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...I suggested the cast of Anaconda as possible actors so I can see how you may have thought I was serious there. My bad.
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I am still very unsettled by armpit girl!
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spike needs to be some chinese bruce lee type badass, jet has to be the only white guy on the crew, and faye was japanese wasn't she? stick to that please hollywood
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Jul 23, 2008 6:46:36 PM CDT
Cowboy Bebop movie train battle > Spidey 2 train battle
by iowa snot client
Girl you know it's true.
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sorry im alittle late replying and...regarding being called a racist...could it simply not be that i don't like will smith as an actor? is a person who critizes a black actor automatically racist? No matter what their argument is?....all that obvious nonesense aside, yes partially because he is black and partially because it'll become a "WIll Smith" movie instead of the movie it should be. Spike should be japanese. He's not black. stating that is not racist, being a racist would be me thinking his race was inferior to mine. His skin color doesnt allow him to fit the role, its the same reason you dont cast Tom Hanks as Shaft. Pull your head out of your ass. Im tired of these double standards.
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Awful. Looking at Mr. Stoff's previous producing credits one can only assume that Keanu Reeves will be playing Spike. Now, unlike most people I harbor no hatred towards Mr. Reeves, but casting him as Spike will be a catastrophic mistake. This project is probably (and most unfortunately) doomed.
Damn. -
Go watch The Adventures of Barry McKenzie I & II along with The Fringe Dwellers and Black Robe to see what an inventive, prescient and incredibly stylish filmmaker he
has been over the years. On the more recent 2 disc edition of The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, you'll find his earliest short films, some of which are early long-form music videos he shot in the mid-sixties in Africa(including one which forsees the repeat-action-edit concept of multiple angles of an 'aftermath' shown over and over. Not to mention an incredibly well handled martial arts sequence at the end of Barry McKenzie Hold's His Own which looks like it's torn straight out of a manga. What I'm referring to is the need that this project has for a director to truly capture the more worldy aspects of the 'Bebop' Universe while still being able to handle the need for an hard-boiled, emotional, jovial action romp. Beresford can do it all, as far as I'm concerned. I obviously have a huge attachement to Cowboy Bebop, which I consider to be possibly the best anime yet made in terms of execution on all the major fronts. It's unlike anything before it or since, while, of course, wearing influences from Pulp science-fiction to Hong Kong cinema to manga/anime like Gunsmith Cats rather shamelessly; it has the potential to be just as special in the flesh. Any takers? -
Jul 24, 2008 7:56:40 AM CDT
Oh, and he's done hardboiled; Oz-style at least...
by sherlock holmes ii
with Money Movers, a kind of pre-'80's Hong Kong cinema/Reservoir Dogs romp!
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The Eskimo was joking, Mister C. I think he/she gets the idea that Will just isn't right for the role no matter what flavor he is. I can honestly say I have never been able to see any of Hollywood's crop of actors filling such a complex role and actually LOOK like Spike. It'll be one of the more demanding jobs for a casting agent to handle... but we all know Hollywood will fuck it up. Just wait and see... But y'know... the suggestion of Clancy Brown as Jet is intruiging...
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http://tinyurl.com/swspike
^^ -
I believe he was tacked on with a 'half-Japanese' ethnicity. And wasn't Faye described as Romanian or something? I can't recall... In any case this is a show where white actors can be cast in the lead roles, no problem! It's just that whoever plays Spike needs to be a kick ass martial artist who imitates Bruce Lee. In fact the only person I can see being Japanese is Ed. Playing cute/silly characters sounds like something a cute Japanese chick can do and make it work. The dog is a Welsh Corgi I think.
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