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Keanu Reeves To Star In Cowboy Bebop

It excites me incredibly to know that a Cowboy Bebop movie is happening. But it makes me scared to think that Keanu is getting the lead in what might be my single favorite Anime series of all time. I'm very skeptical that he can pull off this role. For now we'll have to wait and speculate who the rest of the cast will be. I'm mostly curious who will get Faye Valentine. And we can only cross our fingers and hope that the soundtrack remains intact.

22 of 439 comments (clear)

  1. Keanu will be two-dimensional by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unless this is one of those 3D movies in which case he will just suck.

    1. Re:Keanu will be two-dimensional by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Keanu will be two-dimensional

      Unless this is one of those 3D movies in which case he will just suck.

      Are you saying Keanu Reeves' third dimension is "suck"?

    2. Re:Keanu will be two-dimensional by Kadagan+AU · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Unless you flip the switch that moves him from suck to blow.

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  2. Japanese? by corsec67 · · Score: 5, Funny

    And we can only cross our fingers and hope that the soundtrack remains intact.

    Keanu Reeves knows Japanese?

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    1. Re:Japanese? by Wandering+Wombat · · Score: 5, Funny

      You think that's acting you're doing?

      Hmmm!

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    2. Re:Japanese? by DeadDecoy · · Score: 5, Funny

      There is no script.

  3. Keanu got the wrong role... by mrchaotica · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...he would have made a better Edward!

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    1. Re:Keanu got the wrong role... by melikamp · · Score: 5, Funny

      You've gotta be kidding. Ein is amiable and intelligent, while Keanu has all the charm of of a ship-mounted laser turret. He could probably pull it off as a Vicious-like syndicate henchman. He is long overdue for a sadistic villain role.

  4. Sounds about right to me by n0dna · · Score: 5, Funny

    Poorly animated with stilted dialog is the way I'd also describe Keanu Reeves.

    1. Re:Sounds about right to me by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

      Apparently you haven't met Keanu. He isn't acting. :-P

  5. Live action Cowboy Bebop? by Randle_Revar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't care who the cast is, it still sounds like a bad idea.

    I think I am going to go watch the entire series right now to wash the very idea out of my mind.

  6. Wow by Aladrin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm gonna go out on a limb here:

    I think he can do it.

    My first thought was definitely 'oh no'. But then I remembered that Spike is a little quirky anyhow... And very, very rarely do they manage to make a live-action with characters that really match the Anime's.

    What I'm most scared of is that they'll try to match the voice acting of the English version, instead of trying to get the tone and attitude of the Japanese version. Voice acting makes a huge difference to the overall feel of the character.

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  7. Christian Bale as Spike by hansamurai · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd cast Christian Bale as Spike... but that's just because I want to see him in every movie I watch now.

  8. Soundtrack by Kartoffel · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they have to redo the soundtrack, I hope they hire Bill Cosby.

  9. As Ed? by mr_da3m0n · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I want to see Milla Jovovich as Ed. That would be perfect.

  10. Better actors by Awperator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Spike: Adrian Brody or Adam Brody
    Jet: Clancy Brown
    Don't know about the others

    but yes, they definitely need The Seatbelts/Yoko Kanno. Bebop isn't bebop without the music.

  11. Re:No way by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    His voice lacks the gravely, emotional sarcasm that Spike is portrayed as having. His near monotone delivery will kill the character and reduce him to a mere shell of the original.

    Maybe I'll have to go back and watch the original, because I remember the original Spike being very much monotone, the sarcasm very much in the dialog, not the delivery.

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  12. Bad casting for Cowboy Bebop by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they're going to yutz it up with Keanu, what else can they do wrong? Let's see:

    Spike: Keanu Reeves
    Jet: Samuel L. Jackson (not the cool one from pulp fiction but the lame one from Star Wars and b-movies)
    Ein: Taco Bell dog
    Ed: Rosie O'Donnell with CGI and optical effects like from Lord of the Rings to make her appear hobbit-sized
    Vicious: the comedian Steven Wright with an albino wig, retains deadpan delivery.
    Fae Valentine: the girl from Lazytown that all the pedos have the hots for
    Coolie-yo: A brand new CGI character invented just for the movie who brings a fresh blast of hip-hop sass and in-your-face attitude, voiced by Chris Tucker

    For every other character in the film, make it be Shia LaBeauf making like Eddie Murphy in the Professor movies, he plays every part. "Nononononononononononononononononononononononono!"

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  13. Re:No way by skeeto · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I absolutely love this quote about Keanu Reeves in a review from The New Republic,

    One can only hope that in the future [Reeves] will devote himself to playing androids, less-self-aware species of undead, stylish pieces of contemporary furniture, and other roles that do not require the exhibition of any recognizably human traits.

    Reeves is a horrible actor and it's so disappointing that producers keep giving him roles. I guess it's done because the movie will sell more tickets, as opposed to using a lesser-known actor who might actually be able to act.

  14. Suddenly I understand how Star Wars fans felt by level4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know, I like Star Wars, but I don't DEEPLY DEEPLY LOVE IT like many here. Yeah I know, turn in my geek card, etc, except I DEEPLY DEEPLY LOVE a lot of anime, so I think I should get to keep it.

    Anyway, bearing that in mind, I didn't really mind the "new" Star Wars. Actually, I liked it (except Jar Jar, obviously), and thought all those people complaining about how Lucas was basically ass-raping their childhood innocence, etc, were kind of overreacting.

    But holy shit, now I know what they meant. I fucking love Cowboy Bebop, I fucking LOVE it, and now Hollywood is going to fuck it up the ass.

    There is NO WAY this movie is going to be a worthy continuation or even a semi-accurate movie version of one of my favourite anime series of all time. NO FUCKING WAY. They just cannot do it, Hollywood just cannot make that kind of movie. Cowboy Bebop is deeply nihilistic in a way Hollywood just does not understand. I have nothing against Keanu Reeves but there is no way he can possibly even comprehend the character of Spike. No-one like him can. I am sorry but happy dumb Americans living in sun-drenched California just cannot understand this kind of emotion. They don't even know what to shoot for.

    Faye Valentine? Dear god it'll probably be Lucy Liu. Why not eh? It's an "asian" series so we should get someone from "asia"! Argh!

    God, I'm sorry Star Wars fans. I should have fought for you. "Next they came for the Star Wars fans, but I did not speak up, for I was not a Star Wars fan" ... well now they've come for me ...

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  15. Keanu's underrated by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's become popular to trash Keanu, and I'm not saying he's Johnny Depp, but I could also see him doing a respectable job here.

    Pressing the panic button at this point is pure groupthink.

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  16. Re:get ready for excitement... by Tetsujin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and utter disappointment. why doesn't somebody just staple a 'fro to a wooden plank and let that be Spike. micheal clark duncan can be miscast as Jet and the hot chick from transformers and try acting as Faye. Ein will be CG and Ed will be any female actress...using CG to reduce their size.

    and dont get me started on what a catastrophe the soundtrack will be.

    No, no, no... Clearly Michael Ironside was born to play the role of Jet Black in the live-action Cowboy Bebop... It will also be one more film to add to his repertoire of crap sci-fi movies...

    Ed will be played by a hot girl with big boobs. Instead of talking in rhymes and nonsense she'll be a hacker/greasemonkey/tomboy type character - everyone will recognize her as the character who would be totally hot if she just stopped talking about computers for a minute. They won't bother sticking to the original story, certainly not about little details like Ed's age...

    Seriously, how can any fan of the original be excited about this news? I expect a disaster of "Aeon Flux" proportions, personally...

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