Keanu Reeves has revealed to MTV that he’s trying to get a live action version of the anime Cowboy Bebop off the ground, and that he’s relishing the challenges that come from adapting the cartoon into a movie.
Cowboy Bebop is one of those cartoons that passed me by; the sci-fi-Western comes highly recommended by many people so I was surprised to discover that my attempt to watch it was stymied by bad writing, juvenile situations and shitty everything else. But hey, I’m in the minority. Lots of people like this thing, so I’m probably wrong. I’m probably wrong on tentacle rape as well.
Anyway, Reeves says that the film is set up at Fox, the studio that bankrolled his softly-opening The Day the Earth Stood Still (watch for that shit to PLUMMET this weekend). “We’ve got the rights, we’ve got a writer,” Keanu explained. “He’s putting together a scene outline.”
I guess there’s a lot of ground to cover in an adaptation, so cracking the story is the hard part. Says MTV:
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.”
For the rest of the story, head over to MTV.