Sounding only a little bit smarter than you would expect him to, Mr. Big Box Office of the moment Keanu Reeves, recently spoke to MTV about the big idea rattling around in his ridiculously handsome head. Reeves has his heart set on making a live action version of the anime series, Cowboy Bebop. He says “Oh yeah, cool. We’re trying to do that.”
MTV got the interview with Reeves about his Bebop fascination. The show, although short, lived became a cult sensation and a film was made in 2005. Both the show and the film take place in 2071 and follow the Bebop spaceship and its inhabitants. The crew is a set of bounty hunters. After the police force in the Solar System is rendered useless, the police resort to hiring bounty hunters, such as the Bebop crew.
Reeves has his sights set on playing the main character, Spike, who is considered the “cowboy” of the series. Spike manages to be a martial arts badass, and a serious lady-killer, all while maintaining a severely chill persona. In case you can’t tell by my description, Reeves is beyond perfect for the part, although, serious fans of the show may disagree.
The show exudes hipster cool. Reeves says “It’s got a Western quality, a Western film noir aspect to it. 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.” He’s right. The show does not scream sci-fi. It focuses more on the characters of the show, than the technical aspects of living in a spaceship. It’s all about Spike’s suave yet ruthless nature.
Although the task of translating the show from animated futuristic Solar System to feature length film sounds daunting, Reeves doesn’t sound worried. “I think that would be a production designer’s dream. I think you just need a good production designer.” When reminded that adapting Bebop might be an extremely difficult task, Reeves responds, “Yeah,But that’s why you want to do it.”
The film is currently being produced by Erwin Stoff (The Day the Earth Stood Still) and will follow a plot arc about a fictional drug developed by the military. Reeves claims, “We’ve got the rights, we’ve got a writer. He’s putting together a scene outline.” He says, “We’re taking the Red Eye [story], the beginning part of the series, 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.” Ok, that’s vague.
Granted, the show does provide a specific set of difficulties, like the fact that the story isn’t linear. “Yeah, it’s so episodic and so disconnected. We’re trying to figure out what pieces to put together to tell one story. 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.” Hopefully Keanu Reeves saying he “think[s they] can do something good” will put obsessive, curious fans at ease, but I doubt it.
