
iF Magazine has the news...We caught up with producer-extraordinaire Erwin Stoff at the NBC TCAs where he was promoting his upcoming updated-David-and-Goliath-based show KINGS. When asked about other projects he is currently working on, Stoff, let slip some very juicy news about a very beloved anime franchise. “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.”I get the feeling that more anime-to-hollywood tie ups are to come. Would be interesting to see one for Gundam or Macross done by the Transformers guy. For those who have not seen Cowboy Bebop then make efforts to see it - its quite brilliant - OP here. Image via Moe Imouto.
Michael Bay? No thanks, if he were to do a Gundam movie, he'd go off and butcher the designs.
I am totally with you on this...Michael Bay did it well in putting it to film but sucked in changing the design of the bots ...
Well... If Hajime Katoki did the redesigning, Michael Bay would be fine to direct.
I agree. I do not like Michael Bay's work. its all blowup, bad acting, no story. fox better not fark this one up, or else theres going to be many PO-ed otaku. so far everyone that I have talked to about this, including myself, are mad at fox for daring to even touch the greatness of bebop.
Couldn't argue with you on that one. Michael Bay's a great action director...hands down to that. But he screws up with the designs which fans wouldn't really like.
intresting and worryfull at the same time. lets just hope for the best. this is one of the anime's ive grown up with in the past, one of the ones I always reminice about.
Oh hell, this is not gonna turn out very well. I could laugh at the Dragonball Z movie, cause the series was already so goofy, but they shouldn;t do this to poor Bebop
and it's actually a Dragonball movie, not DBZ, so I don't even know why they did it. DBZ has got much more action and more serious, while the original Dragonball was more comedy and they were kids, now they are almost grownups in the movie...
I don't see this ending well...
Sweetness! I'm looking forward to this, plus if Michael Bay got together with some people and did Macross and Gundam (Forgetting G-Savior) would be awesome!
Oh yeah, he should stick with the original designs, but make them look more realistic
This could be really cool or really lame, If the keep the overall mellow beatnik feel mixed with great music and visuals, I'm sure it could be good. Though it is Japanese, bebop is very much driven by Western Ideals, and America styles of music, so I dont think it is as dangerous to give to american directors as say, Dragonball. We will just have to wait and pray.
I feel the same way. Couldn't have said it better. I just hope Yoko Kanno returns for the movie soundtrack.
Could be cool..or not XD. As long as Faye Valentine doesn't look like Man Faye I have no complaints...I think
Well time to list who'd you want to be Faye then :D Hard to say, buf honestly Angelina Jolie's name first came up in my head. Megan Fox maybe?
Michael Bay raeps Japanese mecha. nuff said.
i wouldn;t mind a macross series done by lucasfilm or industrial light and magic.. Their graphics in transformers just blew me off..even till now. looking forward to part 2.
Bebop is a classic- I think they can pull this off without butchering it.
Finally someone with some sense. Bebop isn't that unrealistic so it could easily be made into a great live action film, as long as it's taken seriously.
Macross would be a hard and expensive intellectual property to get for western cinema. though if Michael Bay did it, he better keep the crescent moon shaped explosions and the mecha designs faithful.
(Again) *holds breath* =X
Robotech is loved by westerners (Its Macross) so should gross well just on the fan base alone. However I agree with our members that stuff like Comic to Live and particular Anime to Live, are basically sink or swim affairs. Anime especially comes with added lead weight.
i didn't even know there was a robotech movie last 2006 made by the US until a few weeks ago
yes, Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles. it was as thrilling as people hoped it would be.
lol I can just imagine what you said about Gundams and Macross. But yeah Hollywood definitely wants in on the Anime money market.
Im putting all my faith in this one. Hopefully it won't suck.
Sorry to be the negative guy here, but for me personally, there will never be such a thing as a "good Hollywood adaptation to an anime". But that's because I'm a purist. I don't want to see my beloved anime mixed with Hollywood. I started watching anime because I was sick and tired of Hollywood crap. Given that there are great Hollywood movies out there. But I can't watch an anime with english dubbing, much less anime with american actors. People who don't share my opinnion would probably enjoy good adaptations of stuff like Cowboy Bebop, Witch Hunter Robin, Monster and other stuff though.
nah i agree with ya it's not simply because you are a purist. however in the hands of a competent writer, you never know. just look at the dark knight. being able to turn a franchise made for kids into one with implicit gore and violence with a compelling storyline was no mean feat. granted, they need the financial backing of a movie studio like Warner to make this work...
cowboy bebop is my all time fav anime...hope hollywood doesnt balls it up
Cowboy Bebop is a cool nice anime... and I don't wish to see it polluted/corrupted or stained by hollywood. They always uglified stuffs other than their own superheros.
After hearing this come up so often.....I have only seen one good side to this. Maybe it will make anime a bit more mainstream in some areas. In doing so helping the artists and such? ........if not kill anime completely XD
No! No! No! Stop Hollywood! Lay off our beloved anime!
*vein pop* again...such negativity about anime-to-Hollywood movies... first the anime revolution that changed the west, people are calling for more anime in the west...now that it's getting attention...people don't want the kind of attention they're giving anime... don't get me wrong...i love my anime the way it is, but this shouldn't be seen as a bad thing...for f*cks sake keep an open mind... to danny: sorry mate...just had to give my 2 cents...
Want Macross on Hollywood! But I won't be able to imagine their songs XD
Tobey Maguire's Production company is already doing the live-action Macross movie. and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) will be doing the screenplay
do the have a realese date yet? web site maybe?
Man that is AWESOME!!!! but, what a bout the cast... who in, hollywood, is cool enought to play Spike? an anime that i would love to see in holly wood, made by the same Transformers people, is PATLABOR...cool.....!!!!!!!!!
I gonna be sick, Michael Bay, Heurk !!
I just hope this movie is not gonna suck... Nice piture, Vicious is the only one holding a katana...
Do not do. Do not want. Anime to movie does not work, ever.
Those live action will totaly destroy my happyness.....
Hmm, can this be a good thing? Ehhhhhhhhh:( Anyway, I have seen Cowboy Bebop, was one of the best I've seen so far.
I hope it dose not suck, because I really like Bebop. It has good story and the music was excellent. If this live action ver. has Spike or anyone else saying stupid one liners while shooting or anything like that, then it is going to suck, and kill Bebop for everyone!!
This is going to be bad..really bad. Scanner darkly was pathetic
if its anything like "300" then still got chance(no lost in translation), if not Bebop will probably be the name of the hair style of the main character in the Live action version....
somehow when I heard this news I did a Darth Vader NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO in myself...
lol, was it monotonous like his? ;)
The more I think aboutit, the more I feel this will turn out bad. I'm open minded and usually positive by nature but I just can't see a "Cowboy Bebop" live action movie turning out well enough to even approach the level of the anime original. Please Hollywood do not butcher Spike & Faye! >_<
Michael Bay turns everything he touches to crap. I liked Bebop a lot before it was popular, and then everyone whether they liked anime or not ended up going on and on about it and it grated on my nerves to the point that I didn't even buy the last DVD when it came out. In light of this, I think that I may pull the series out one day soon and watch them again, now that I'm 6-7 years removed from mass idiocy over the series. I really hope that it gets done right, but short of comic books and novels, movies based on other mediums like games/manga/anime tend to fall short and not match up to the original creation.
I can only hope that they truly respect the source material... Cowboy Bebop is a great series, and deserves to be handled properly. E^D
i heard that they were doing one, i just didn't know that it was an American director... I probably won't see it so i can save the image of spike and the gang in my head they way it's suppose to be!
Yeah, that's the difference when you've already seen the anime, you can't help but compare it to the anime when you see it.. lol
I'll take a wait and see mind set about this. I liked the anime, so.... the casting will probably be a big factor in whether or not I actually want to see this.
I'd like to see this one on a anime to Hollywood movie since this anime was created on america but since they made it great as an animation, how about trying their best on the live-action, I'm sure they'll not waste this opportunity or I'll hate Hollywood making this a live-action.
Hm... I'm still waiting for the Real Action Evangelion movies. The Transformers movie is not bad, so this one worth a shot. Wonder how the Swordfish will look like in the real action movie =P
Hmmm... Interesting. But I wonder who you will get amongst the American actors to play the characters?
My choices Paul Walker - Spike Vin Diesel - Jet Faye - Maria Ozawa Ed - Dakota Fanning
I just hope they don't destroy the magic formula that makes Cowboy BeBop what it is. It would make me cry :(
well as of now it seems Keanu reeves wil be in this movie
Whens the release again?!
please just dont mess up the music
=D other anime/movie adaptations are avatar the last air bender, akira, and ghost in the shell. if i remember correctly i have heard akira was going to be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and steven spillberg is going to be involved in the ghost in the shell movie. i cant wait =]
Posting late but never the less. Cowboy Bebop to me ranks up there with Heavy Metal, The Hobbit and Akira in no particular order....AND Fantasia for that matter...plus some others but I will keep it short. If the vision, concept and feel are kept pure it could work, like Lord Of The Rings. NO detail was too small and was re-created faithfully. The rest is history...