Television Cowboy Bebop (Netflix, November 19), update: aaaaaaaand it's been cancelled

[Ghost_MH]

https://ew.com/tv/2018/11/28/cowboy-bebop-netflix/

 

Netflix doesn't exactly have a great track record with live action reboots, but let's see how well they pull this one off. Death Note should have been an easy live action reboot, but that was a movie. The only issue here is that Cowboy Bebop is very episodic with a more solid-burning narrative laid over the top of it. That can be tough to pull off right.

[Greatoneshere]

I hope for the best and expect the worst whilst also believing this will never actually happen. At least a TV series is a much better idea than the one-off movie they had been planning for ages years ago starring Keanu Reeves until the budget ballooned and they cancelled it. 

[TwinIon]

It's an impressive lineup of behind the camera talent: "Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol), along with Jeff Pinkner (Fringe) and Scott Rosenberg (Knightfall). Christopher Yost (Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok) will write the first episode," plus Shinichiro Watanabe serving as a consultant.

 

I've been rewatching the series recently and it's just so good. Easily my favorite anime of all time, so all the talent in the world isn't enough for me to expect this to live up to the original.

 

1 hour ago, Greatoneshere said:

I hope for the best and expect the worst whilst also believing this will never actually happen. At least a TV series is a much better idea than the one-off movie they had been planning for ages years ago starring Keanu Reeves until the budget ballooned and they cancelled it. 

I agree that a big budget series is better than a movie, but I was always kinda on board with Keanu as Spike.

[Greatoneshere]

6 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

I agree that a big budget series is better than a movie, but I was always kinda on board with Keanu as Spike.

 

I was always on board with Keanu even though even then he was too old to be playing Spike Spiegel. Now he's definitely too old but I wasn't against the idea at all. I also loved the idea of a $200 million script for a Cowboy Bebop movie (which is where the problems were in terms of a studio making the movie). But a TV series is simply a better format for Bebop than a film (though a film after the TV series like they did with the anime that is also an episodic story works just fine, I just wouldn't start with a movie). 

[elbobo]

Not overly optimistic about this, a lot of netflix's live action shows are really just mediocre at best even if they have a huge budget. 

[TwinIon]

Something that didn't click for me right away: it's only 10 episodes! Thank goodness!

 

Even the 13 episodes of the Marvel shows feels like too much, and they just feel empty.

 

If they're spending decent money on this, I imagine that they're going to make them hour long episodes, but I kinda hope they don't. Watching the anime and watching Kidding recently has reminded me how nice it can be for shows to be 30min long. Just because something is serious or has action in it doesn't mean it needs to be an hour.

[ort]

Meh... why??

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

4 hours ago, elbobo said:

Not overly optimistic about this, a lot of netflix's live action shows are really just mediocre at best even if they have a huge budget. 

Case in point: Altered Carbon

[elbobo]

2 hours ago, SFLUFAN said:

Case in point: Altered Carbon

 

literally the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this thread

[DPCyric]

2 hours ago, SFLUFAN said:

Case in point: Altered Carbon

 

I really liked it 

 

As for this I'm not sure Bebop can be done justice in live action... while I prefer Champloo over Bebop I think I would be less concerned if they were trying to adapt it.

[Wild]

3 hours ago, SFLUFAN said:

Case in point: Altered Carbon

 

Altered Carbon was close to greatness, but could't stick the landing. Still a fun ride.

[Greatoneshere]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2019-09-04/live-action-cowboy-bebop-cast-currently-prepping-in-new-zealand/.150725

 

Update. John Cho as Spike might be inspired casting, though I'm still very worried if this will be any good. 
 

My hope is that showrunners Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinkner really bring it. These are the guys who brought us October Road, Life on Mars (US version), Happy Town, and Zoo, all great TV shows (Pinkner is also responsible for many episodes of Fringe separately, also a good thing). Hopefully they will bring that to this. Their film writing track record is pretty iffy at best, but these four guys know television pretty well by comparison.

[skillzdadirecta]

On 11/28/2018 at 4:35 PM, Wild said:

 

Altered Carbon was close to greatness, but could't stick the landing. Still a fun ride.

Hopefully the second season will be better... show has potential but I think the main guy was miscast. His "original" identity was more interesting than his "new" one.

[Bacon]

[Reputator]

[Keyser_Soze]

Will watch if they put Man Faye in.

[TwinIon]

I really like John Cho, but I'm very dubious that Bebop will translate to live action. A villain like Vicious can work in animation, but that kind of over-the-top baddie would probably feel pretty silly in live action. Same goes for a goofball like Ed. There are Bebop stories they could tell that might transition a bit better, but they're going to have to work pretty hard to convince me it's a good idea.

[Brian]

[Greatoneshere]

2 hours ago, TwinIon said:

I really like John Cho, but I'm very dubious that Bebop will translate to live action. A villain like Vicious can work in animation, but that kind of over-the-top baddie would probably feel pretty silly in live action. Same goes for a goofball like Ed. There are Bebop stories they could tell that might transition a bit better, but they're going to have to work pretty hard to convince me it's a good idea.

 

I agree 100%. I'm not even sure how it can work without Yoko Kanno's music. I think we'll have to accept like with a lot of anime to live-action adaptations in the West that they'll tone down the anime stuff considerably (like Vicious, Faye's outfit, how Ed behaves to some degree, etc.). This is probably good given how ridiculously bad (due to how over-the-top) Japanese live-action translations of anime have been by comparison to the West's live-action translations of anime. This is why Speed Racer is still by far the best live-action adaptation of an anime in the West - it threads that needle between looks and feeling like anime but also being a live-action film whilst retaining the very essence and spirit of the original Speed Racer cartoon (the movie needs to lose the monkey and the youngest brother, but otherwise the film is essentially perfect for what it is trying to do). 

 

But yeah, we'll have to accept it from the start that things will look and feel very different. Which, to be fair, is the very ethos of Bebop. This will be an interpretation rather than an adaptation I think. I don't see how it could even work well enough to be taken seriously if they don't do it this way. So long as it still feels like Cowboy Bebop in spirit, mood, tone, and atmosphere, if not specifically in look, plot beats, and character, I will consider that a huge win because I'm not going in expecting anything close to a slavish adaptation. I look to other adaptations as points of comparison: Death Note, Speed Racer, Ghost in the Shell, Dragonball Evolution, Kite, and Alita: Battle Angel as ways to guess what to expect (hopefully a lot better . . . ). One huge benefit this has over those is it's a 10-episode miniseries as opposed to a film, which should work a lot better for an adaptation of an anime series instead of an anime film, which until now has been ignored as a factor (I mean, condensing Death Note or Dragonball or Alita into one film was nuts - they are meant to be serials). 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

On 11/28/2018 at 6:35 PM, Wild said:

 

Altered Carbon was close to greatness, but could't stick the landing. Still a fun ride.

The show did a really good job visualizing the world, I thought. 

 

I never thought I’d be one of those people, but the book was better. 

[Jason]

[Nokt]

If Death Note is any indication, stay away. Stay very far away.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

5 hours ago, Nokt said:

If Death Note is any indication, stay away. Stay very far away.

As long as they don’t try to “westernize” it too much. I see no reason it couldn’t be reminiscent of something like Firefly, but with a more contemporary aesthetic. ... to compare it to a live action space cowboy show. 

[Pikachu]

 

[elbobo]

Depending on how much they have shot I can see them recasting the role and starting over. It is going to expensive as hell to halt production for 9 months and screw up the rest of the cast and crew's schedule 

[skillzdadirecta]

Recast that shit...he was miscast in my opinion any way.

[Keyser_Soze]

8 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Recast that shit...he was miscast in my opinion any way.

 

Or just cancel the whole thing.

[Greatoneshere]

12 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Recast that shit...he was miscast in my opinion any way.

 

Really? He was my most hopeful casting. He's a great actor.

[Jason]

15 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Really? He was my most hopeful casting. He's a great actor.

 

Keanu

[skillzdadirecta]

16 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Really? He was my most hopeful casting. He's a great actor.

 

I could have lived with him and was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I can't help but think there's better choices out there.

 

Just now, Jason said:

 

Keanu

 

Case in point.

[Greatoneshere]

4 hours ago, Jason said:

 

Keanu

 

4 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Case in point.

 

John Cho is easily the better actor - watch Columbus and Searching for proof. Keanu Reeves is a great choice but not youthful enough for Spike Spiegel. I like him more for Vicious at this point with the hair and air of badassery and Vicious has at least always come off as older. But I mean this is happening so let's not cancel a job for an East Asian actor headlining a big project guys.  

[Jason]

18 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

 

John Cho is easily the better actor - watch Columbus and Searching for proof. Keanu Reeves is a great choice but not youthful enough for Spike Spiegel. I like him more for Vicious at this point with the hair and air of badassery and Vicious has at least always come off as older. But I mean this is happening so let's not cancel a job for an East Asian actor headlining a big project guys.  

 

Keanu is part Asian doe. 

[Greatoneshere]

21 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Keanu is part Asian doe. 

 

Barely. It's a little bit from his father's side (paternal grandmother who was Chinese-Hawaiian), not even a direct 50% or 25%. He's a white guy for all intents and purposes. That'd be like saying Bruce Lee is part German, which would be more accurate to say of Bruce Lee than it would be to say Keanu is part East Asian. It's probably more apt even to say that Keanu is part Hawaiian than part Chinese. Keanu is otherwise like 90% white European.

 

John Cho, by comparison, is 100% South Korean (East Asian), and was born and lived in South Korea until he was 6 years old. 

[skillzdadirecta]

Interesting... because of  "the one drop rule" Keanu would have definitely been considered "Asian" in this country at certain points in its history while Bruce would have NEVER been considered "White". That's just the way systemic racism works in this Country... That said while I do think Keanu fits Spike Spiegal better than John Cho (who while being Asian is no more Japanese than Keanu is) he wasn't even who I was referring to when I said there were better choices than Cho. There are PLENTY of Asian actors who come to mind before Cho does when thinking of a live action Spike.

 

That said, I've been surprised by castings like this before and Cho IS a good enough actor to become Spike with the right script and direction. I was definitely open to it but having said that, I would love for them to take the opportunity to recast... they probably won't though. Their production insurance probably covers eventualities like this.

[Jason]

4 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Interesting... because of  "the one drop rule" Keanu would have definitely been considered "Asian" in this country at certain points in its history while Bruce would have NEVER been considered "White". That's just the way systemic racism works in this Country... That said while I do think Keanu fits Spike Spiegal better than John Cho (who while being Asian is no more Japanese than Keanu is) he wasn't even who I was referring to when I said there were better choices than Cho. There are PLENTY of Asian actors who come to mind before Cho does when thinking of a live action Spike.

 

That said, I've been surprised by castings like this before and Cho IS a good enough actor to become Spike with the right script and direction. I was definitely open to it but having said that, I would love for them to take the opportunity to recast... they probably won't though. Their production insurance probably covers eventualities like this.

 

Specifically for the Asian thing I was thinking about how there was a movie in the last year where they made a big deal about getting Keanu. I'm blanking on the name of the movie but it was very specifically about this Asian movie getting this ALPHA Asian.