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Cowboy Bebop live action casting discussion
When I first heard they were making a live action version of Cowboy Bebop, one of my favorite anime’s I was part excited and part disappointed. Firstly the TV series of Bebop was damn near perfect with some great stories, seriously cool music, lots of action and a sprinkling of comedy all rolled into one. Next came the Cowboy Bebop anime movie, still very cool with an updated budget and slightly classier looking than the original TV series but not quite as interesting a story as the best we saw in the series.  Maybe with a live action movie they could make amends somewhat, however I just don’t see a live action movie making me a fan of it, but I’m still excited to see what they do with Cowboy Bebop in live action, and whether they can do the original series justice.
Well from all reports so far Keanu Reeves has been cast in the lead role playing Spike Spiegel, the main bounty hunter in the series who also works with Jet, the older and wiser bounty hunter. Also along for the ride is Faye Valentine who hooked up with Spike and Jet and has been working with (and against) then for a while. Also we have Edward a genius child hacker and Ein a government engineered Einstein dog.
So with the recaps done, the main questions spring to the fore, who should be cast in the rest of the main roles, it already seems to late for Spike to be anyone else, with Keanu attached to the project and I agree with most of what I’ve read so far. I think Keanu is a solid movie star, but I don’t personally see him as the anime version of Spike he has the height and the dark hair and the martial arts, im pretty sure that Spike is a much younger character though. Other characters are equally difficult, Edward is a tough one to cast as shes such a quirky character, Ein would obviously have to be a dog but hey i cant say that im that up on popular canines working in hollywood at the moment. The two im going to concentrate on, Faye Valentine and Jet are a little easier to cast your mind over.
Starting with Jet, names I’ve heard thrown around are Jeff Bridges, who I think would be perfect but he’s possibly too old for Jet too although i don’t actually know how old the character of Jet is supposed to be. Ron Perlman has also been mentioned and is another great idea, and in my opinion probably the best idea I’ve heard so far. Other names being thrown about are Bruce Willis, who doesn’t have the size that you would expect from Jet but possibly is the most able to play his character from the few were covering. Other names mentioned have been Samuel L Jackson who could definitely do Jets personality but he just isn’t big enough and Michael Duncan Clarke also got a few nods, but he possibly has too big a frame.
For Faye Valentine I found it more difficult to make choices, I’m sure there are plenty of actresses who have the skills to pull of Faye Valentines attitude and drama but combining that with the look makes it harder. Eliza Dushka should be able to pull off the role, she definately has the energy, i think Elisha Cuthbert could probably pull off the attitude and the drama required for the role and she looks great too. Lots of people have mentioned Kate Beckinsdale in the talk of who to cast, i also think Angelina Jolie would have been able to do a good Faye Valentine but that isn’t going to happen now being realistic. Finally my last pitch is Lucy Lui, who probably has the personality to do this role and the physicality.
If you want to take a look at some of the discussions going on here you can take a look over at this thread on aintitcool.com, which is were some of the actors suggestered here were prompted from. Im really interested in this one to hear who is going to be cast in the Cowboy Bebop live version and also who everyone else thinks should be cast. Whats your opinion?