COWBOY BEBOP's time.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-07-22/live-action-cowboy-bebop-film-in-development-at-fox

Personal Opinion Time (YAY)

Surprised to see studios are still picking up anime titles for live action remakes. I would've figured since the flop of 'SPEED RACER' they'd steer clear of anime like the plague. My guess though is that the studios are paying close attention to the awareness surrounding the new DRAGONBALL movie (which looks like a classic on the same level as 'The Super Mario Brothers Movie'). The show has a lot of fans and is closely being followed so the studios want to play it safe and pick up the 'quintessential' anime titles just in case DB makes money. They don't want to get screwed over and have to pay three times as much money for a property rights after DB makes bank.
Which only means that if DB makes cash, when you combine that with the TRANSFORMERS sequel (which is essentially an anime adaptation) these anime films should probably become the norm soon. The new "Asian Horror Film Remake" trend.

As for COWBOY BEBOP...eh, never really a fan. It sturck me as cool for cool's sake. I remember the show was very episodic (intentionally so) so I think it could work great treated as an episode (kind've like the animated movie). But knowing Hollywood studios it will be an "Origin" Story so they can set up a franchise.

"Origin" stories suck in general.

At least with Cowboy Bebop, we wouldn't have to worry about Americanizing the setting or names.

I'm kind of excited about this. Besides Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop is one of my favorite animes. I realize that they could really screw up the story, but this quote from the article is promising:

Stoff promised "a real degree of faithfulness," and added, “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.”

With the sci-fi/western motif Cowboy Bebop has going, it has that Firefly/Serenity feel to it. I realize that Cowboy Bebop predates Firefly, but I was exposed to Firefly first. All they would need is a good cast to represent the characters.

I can't remember where I read it, but there was a discussion a while back about what live action actors you would cast for Cowboy Bebop. Here are/were my picks for the big four:
Spike Spiegal: Nathan Fillion - What can I say? I'm a fan of his. He played an excellent Malcolm Reynolds. I think he could pull off Spike. I could also see Christian Bale.
Jet Black: Bruce Willis - Hellboy has also got me thinking about Ron Pearlman. I think someone also mentioned Jason Statham. I think you get the idea of what type of actor I'm after.
Faye Valentine: Famke Janssen - This is a tough one for me. I think she could pull it off, but I'm not sure. I just watched Pirates, so I also think perhaps Keira Knightly. I'm not as sold on these picks as I am on the others.
Ed: Dakota Fanning - How old is she anyway? I could see her being eccentric like in I Am Sam (my wife made me watch it).

I don't know if this was the point of the thread, but I figured I'd just throw it out there.

Wow.....Hollywood are really getting into these things, eh?!

I'll wait until I get some pictures!! Wouldn't get my hopes up, Dragon Ball and Speed Racer has destroyed all my hope for Hollywood adaptation!!

Oh noes

I'll wait until I get some pictures!! Wouldn't get my hopes up, Dragon Ball and Speed Racer has destroyed all my hope for Hollywood adaptation!!

I was impressed with Transformers. I'm really looking forward to the second movie.

As long they have a producer who is planning on remaining faithful to the anime, I think it has a good shot at being decent.

I haven't seen Speed Racer. I've heard horrible things, so I've avoided it up to this point. I'll probably end up catching it eventually. I'm too big of a John Goodman fan not to.

NAveryW wrote:At least with Cowboy Bebop, we wouldn't have to worry about Americanizing the setting or names.

This is true, but they need to do justice to the anime, don't they? (I know most of them don't)

BUT WHO WILL PLAY EIN?!!!!!!

I'm going to be very unhappy if Spike doesn't have his Jericho.

actually pretty do-able

Rhyno wrote:I was impressed with Transformers.

Transformers isn't an anime.

Rhyno wrote:I haven't seen Speed Racer. I've heard horrible things, so I've avoided it up to this point.

The Speed Racer anime was relly never exactly ultra-high quality to start with...

IMHO, I say Hollywood needs to stop trying to make anime into live action. Other types of cartoon might and have worked before, but anime will never work. Anime is in league of its own, and are practically movies themselves, and would have a hard time translating over to live action. (Might I also mention anime-physics)

As long as they don't give it to a complete idiot, I think it would probably turn out pretty well.

NAveryW wrote:

Rhyno wrote:I was impressed with Transformers.

Transformers isn't an anime.<snip>

technically, no, but there was an anime for it, so...

anyway, this doesn't come as a surprise to me, considering Dragon Ball and Robotech are purportedly being made

I'm anxious in regards to casting and who's directing, they will be KEY to whether this thing will kick arse like The Dark Knight or if it will suck arse like Speed Racer (and IMO Transformers, don't hold it against me) if the wrong people are involved

we'll have to start playing THAT game of pick-the-cast-&-director now

Action_Bastard wrote:IMHO, I say Hollywood needs to stop trying to make anime into live action. Other types of cartoon might and have worked before, but anime will never work. Anime is in league of its own, and are practically movies themselves, and would have a hard time translating over to live action. (Might I also mention anime-physics)

Anything can be adapted well if done by the right people who know what they're doing and care about what they're making.

True, true, just look at the new Batman films, (yes I know it is not anime, but there was one that came out last week) Tim Burton made them worse and worse, but under new management, it became works of art. But still, I am just saying, some anime just can't be done.

Of course... there's always Cowboy Bebop at his computer to worry about. Take a quick look at tvtropes.org to find out what I mean by that.

CB always struck me as very suitable for America though..... Something that would fir the US style of film noir/gangster movie...

But that's just me...

BrikHaus wrote:BUT WHO WILL PLAY EIN?!!!!!!

Martin Sheen.

I think this is very doable. I would think that if the producers do indeed plan to remain faithful to the anime, Cowboy Bebop would translate very nicely to a live action film. I agree with Gendo'sPapa that an origin story should be avoided. I would prefer to see the characters introduced on the fly like the Cowboy Bebop animated movie... or even like Serenity. With Cowboy Bebop being episodic in nature anyway, the live action movie could be a one-shot story also like the animated movie.

I already gave my ideas for the actors, but I forgot to mention possible directors:
Ridley Scott - I think I heard the Blade Runner was an inspiration for Cowboy Bebop
Joss Whedon - I really am a fan boy of his
Quentin Tarantino - His direction of fight scenes in Kill Bill has me thinking...
Christopher Nolan - He sticks out because of his most recent success
David Fincher - Ehhh... maybe