Casting Bebop | Jeff Harris, August 8, 2008

Cowboy Bebop is one of the greatest animated series ever created and ever seen. Many people hold Shinichiro Watanabe's first great masterpiece to high regards, and with good reason. The series pretty much was a celebration of American culture, revolutionized the "space western" genre along with Trigun and Outlaw Star (still, to this day, my favorite Toonami series of all time). When producer Erwin Stoff announced that he is developing the series as a live-action movie for 20th Century Fox, fans went ballistic. When the fans learned that he's also Keanu Reeves' manager, they went livid and publicly declared and fear that he will be cast as Bebop's protagonist, Spike Spiegel, despite the fact that Mr. Stoff has produced other Keanuless films, most notably I Am Legend, which starred Will Smith. Some actually hope that the live-action film will be placed in development hell, a term meaning it'll never be made. I don't. I would actually love to see the film made myself, and unlike a lot of otaku, I'm confident they could actually create a great film. At it's core, it's a sci-fi comedic-drama adventure. Shows like Firefly and Doctor Who and films like The Fifth Element have already perfected the genre years ago. We have the technology and we have the creators who will adhere to the original vision of Watanabe-san, or at least create something that remains as close to the original without offending people familiar with the original Cowboy Bebop. The following is a casting call for the Cowboy Bebop live-action movie. I have two or three choices for each part of the production, from directors to the cast. I'm not involved with the casting process and don't take these as THE choices the producers will make when it comes to deciding who gets picked, but you already knew that. For your perusal, the casting call.