Live-action Cowboy Bebop coming to Netflix

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/28/live-action-cowboy-bebop-comin.html

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A Netflix Original Series starring Keanu? I hope that Netflix isn’t putting too many of its financial eggs in one basket with such high profile offerings. I doubt that Keanu comes cheap.

Maybe hes a big fan of the series and willing to work for less. He has done more indy stuff in the past.

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He hasn’t been cast in the new show. No cast has even been hinted at yet.

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Actually Keanu was supposed to be cast as Spike Spiegal in a Cowboy Bebop big screen movie that Fox is working on (though that was announced in 2009 so maybe not). The Netflix TV series is something else entirely.

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Oh, gottcha, I misread the last sentence. :blush:

Why? It’s already one of the better television shows, with one of the best theme songs and musical scores. How could they possibly improve on something that’s virtually a masterpiece?

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I’m chuffed as nuts about this! Hope they can make it work.

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They will get my interest if they announce that Yoko Kanno is on board to compose. I would even be fine if they just licensed the soundtrack from the anime.

I mean all I’m looking for from this is basically a jazzy Firefly where I don’t have to look at Adam Baldwin.

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Firefly is coming back?

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I finally got the chance to see a group do a live performance of the theme a while ago. The enormous strain required by that saxophone solo likely has much to do with why it doesn’t come up more often.

It would be nice if this series paved the way for more such live performances, but the way these things go, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the jazz was jettisoned entirely and replaced with dubstep.

In other news, do please check out what The Amazing World of Gumball did a little while ago.

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A large part of Cowboy Bebop was it’'s visual aesthetic and I just cannot see a “Live action” Netflix series carry that off (Much less a Live action movie)

I can fail like that!
Throw some money at me please.

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If they post the original anime series, I’m okay with this. They did it with Death Note.

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Director: I want you to crash through that window sideways with guns blazing and grab that corgi. Go!

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Yeah the Keanu starring iteration was the Hollywood feature film that’s been in development hell for 15 years or so. I don’t even think he was attached to more recent attempts to make an American film.

Because there’s just more money in live action. And seemingly not just in the Western market. The Japanese and Koreans are huge on live action Anime adaptations. Netflix seems to be going hard on that lately. They recently signed up the Airbender guys to do a live action film adaptation of the original series.

Seems sort of pointless if your going to sign that crew up. Just have then nake a new animated show.

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Thinking about this, Netflix should do something interesting with Wolf’s Rain which is sort of the spiritual successor to Cowboy Bebop made by most of the same people. It’s a bit of a mess, and would transition to live action in an interesting way.

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Isn’t this just another sign of the death of risk taking in film and TV? It’s something with such a pedigree that they know this will make money whatever they put out, so they just have to avoid messing it up badly, rather than take a risk on a new and original idea.

Oh, and I know it’s in the linked article, but I just cannot resist posting one of the best intros ever made:

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I loved this show, and really loved the closing tune “The Real Folk Blues”. I think I found it on Napster or one of those file sharing programs back then.

I clicked around in the soundtrack Rob posted, but not with enough patience to see if it was there. I just found it again now on YouTube. I love the bass line! Lots of great guitars and more too!

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