Netflix Reveals Premiere Date, First Images For Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Series (arstechnica.com) 99
Netflix has announced that its long-delayed, live-action adaptation of the influential and popular classic anime series Cowboy Bebop will premiere on Friday, November 19. Ars Technica reports: The streaming service also released the first images from the show, giving fans some sense of what to expect from a live-action series based on an animated one famous for its visual flair. The images show actor John Cho (Star Trek, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle) as the series' lead character, Spike Spiegel. The series will also star Alex Hassell (Suburbicon), Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), and Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage), among others. Andre Nemec will be the series showrunner. He previously worked as a writer and producer on sci-fi TV series Alias and Zoo, plus the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. The director of the original anime series, Shinichiro Watanabe, is a consultant for the new show. Also returning from the anime is score composer Yoko Kanno.
Cowboy Bebop originally premiered in 1998. It is a space western about a group of bounty hunters on a spaceship called the Bebop. It drew critical acclaim and became a cult hit thanks in part to its striking visual style and its strong thematic elements.
Cowboy Bebop originally premiered in 1998. It is a space western about a group of bounty hunters on a spaceship called the Bebop. It drew critical acclaim and became a cult hit thanks in part to its striking visual style and its strong thematic elements.
hmm (Score:2)
Does John Cho have any martial arts chops?
Re: (Score:2)
Netflix has done some martial arts stuff before, e.g. the various Netflix series. They were quite decent for the most part, the fighting was not quite up to Hong Kong levels but it was really, really brutal.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
A friend game me his login a few weeks ago. I logged in once, saw nothing I wanted to see and haven't been back.
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't been highly excited for this, first time I heard about it.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The creators of the original anime don't want to do another series, they told the story they wanted to tell and it's finished.
Doing a different take on it as a live action thing could be interesting. It's fairly common to do that sort of thing in Japan, e.g. the anime was adapted into a manga book. In the west you often get the novelization of the movie, for example.
Most people seem to be okay with that, like the massive number of Star Wars and Star Trek novels and comics that adapt the original TV series.
Re: (Score:2)
Doing a different take on it as a live action thing could be interesting. It's fairly common to do that sort of thing in Japan
In my experience, though, live-action adaptations of anime are seldom any good at all. CG adaptations can be hit or miss.
Re: (Score:2)
After DragonballZ and The Last Airbender I have a seriously hard time believing that most fans, or anyone beyond someone who once heard their uncle talk about the anime, giving much of a fuck about live action remakes.
Re: (Score:1)
No No No! We need it to be live action! And we need to sacrifice good writing and plots to make it woke inclusive! You're crazy for asking for that kind of stuff.
Remember that sub-plot with the transsexual character? My guess is that they will focus on that.
Re: (Score:2)
Netflix has a history of doing really well liked and well written diverse casts. She-Ra is probably the best known example but there are lots of others, both animated and live action.
There is a new He-Man show for kids coming and I expect that will be the same. Ironically the current adult version that people are complaining about isn't woke or inclusive at all.
Re: why not make more of what people want? (Score:2)
Lol. You found a way to wiggle in promotion of the retarded sheman remake. And then added that it isn't woke, to attract which crowd? Those who don't know it is woke ass shit pile in the hope some might be foolish enough to fall for it?
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't woke? They got rid of He-Man and yet that's the character that they advertised to attract He-Man fans. Bait and switch.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: why not make more of what people want? (Score:2)
Nope (Score:2)
I was going to write a diatribe about how this already looks to suck because ony Mustafa looks like the original characters. Instead, I'll simply say this will be another movie/series which is filmed practically in the dark so you can't see anything. It's an easy way to keep costs down since you don't have to worry too much about the background.
Doubt me? Look at all the pictures from ArsTechnica. Dark. Every single one of them, including the one with all three on the couch.
True fans will suck it up becaus
Re: (Score:2)
Everyone else will be acting like it's the last episode of Game of Thrones and wondering why they can't see anything.
I think you are referring to the second episode of the final season of GoT. That's the one you where you couldn't see much. I was more disappointed with the things you could see though. We had arranged with some friends to watch the Season 2 finale of Cobra Kai and that much advertised GoT episode, and we went for Cobra Kai first to start with the "light" show and conclude with the "serious" stuff. Well, that Cobra Kai ended with our jaws dropped to the floor, so GoT was quite lame in comparison, watched af
Re: (Score:2)
I think you are referring to the second episode of the final season of GoT
Episode 3 was the one that got everyone atwitter.
https://www.theverge.com/tldr/... [theverge.com]
Re: (Score:2)
I love people who jump to claim something they haven't seen will suck based off of minimal evidence like a few pictures. You even give yourself a way out if some people like it, how forward thinking.
Re: (Score:1)
When I saw the trailer for John Carter I said it sucked and wouldn't last more than 30 days in the theater. Almost exactly 30 days later it was pulled and it was a complete flop.
So yes, people can claim something will suck based on either screen shots or trailers.
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, you nailed it one time so now you've proven you can see into the future. How amazing it must be to be you.
For a website with such a science angle on it, it's amazing how often people think a single anecdote is meaningful in broad contexts. "I predicted one movie was bad based off the trailer, I've just proven the infallibility of my cinematic future vision!" Give me a break...
And by the way, a trailer is a shit ton more informative in regards to a movie then some staged photos of the cast posing. In on
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
The question, or in this case statement, was that someone couldn't judge whether a movie would be good or not based off minimal evidence. I showed that yes, it can be done. I did not say it could be done all the time.
As for the science part, look up intuition. It's been extensively studied. The general rule is your first instinct is correct [psychologytoday.com].
How amazing it must
Re: (Score:2)
No, you're just refusing to consider the other very obvious and more likely conclusion which is that you just got lucky.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, there's also the weight of experience. Why, hello, Last Airbender, Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Inspector Gadget, Aeon Flux, Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Magoo, Mulan, and so on...
Re: (Score:2)
Oh great, you can make a list of movie adaptations that didnt work out. I can make a list of ones that did.
Lord of the Rings, Fight Club, Shawshank Redemption, Schindler's List, A Clockwork Orange, and so on...
That doesnt change the fact that people are judging the entire movie off of some stills of the actors posing or in your case "it's bad because other movies were bad".
Re: (Score:2)
Funny how his examples are all so much younger than yours... nah, gotta be a coincidence...
Re: (Score:2)
Probably because I'm older and don't pay much attention to pop culture anymore. You can Google search more current fair yourself.
Re: (Score:2)
I wouldn't bet on you being older than me, although I suppose it's possible. Trust me, the diabetes and blood pressure meds my doctor has me on remind me how old I am.
And, BTW, "fare".
Re: (Score:2)
"...and don't pay much attention to pop culture anymore"
Common (although not universal) symptom of getting older. To varying degrees of course.
Re: (Score:2)
My point was all the ones I listed were live-action adaptations of animation. None of yours are. You can find live-action adaptations of animation that were good, but they're pretty thin on the ground.
Re: (Score:2)
So you're telling me that there is something unique about animation that makes it impossible to adapt to live action despite quite a few good adaptations made between formats that are far more different (how about comic books to film?)?
Please forgive me but I don't buy that for a second.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you, except I'm not saying "impossible," just "really difficult". The very fact the formats are so similar makes the relatively few but vital differences very apt to trip up the live-action remake unless its creators are very careful.
Re: (Score:2)
Not buying it. Getting a good look from live action in going from animation to live action does strike me as a challenge but that's no different than going from comic book to live action and while I would describe most comic movies as middling (although generally not bad mind you) there are some really excellent ones out there.
Meanwhile going from comic to live action offers a lot of challenges that going from animation to live action doesnt have like adjusting dialog.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm surprised you didn't include Lion King in there.
Re: (Score:2)
It's probably impossible to find someone who looks like Faye in real life, and outside of anime that kind of costume is just going to look weird. TBH it was always a bit out of place in the anime, everything else was noire but for some reason she was anime heroine fan service, so this might actually be an improvement.
I thought Spike looked like what you would expect based on the anime. Watanabe has said that he intended Spike to be a "typical old-style Japanese man".
In any case what made Bebop was not the w
Re: (Score:3)
She doesn't need to look exactly like she does in the anime, but at least get the theme right. Faye uses sex to distract her marks and take advantage of them. She's the paradox of relishing being the center of attention while isolating everyone at the same time. That emotional isolation is largely due to the fact that she's so gorgeous that nearly all of the men she's encountered only want to have sex with her, so she's compartmentalized and embraced it to her advantage. As soon as she starts actually *
Re: (Score:2)
Of course they had characters like that in 1920s noir novels and movies, and they wore sexy but less revealing outfits.
I'm not going to get too hung up on exactly how she looks, particularly the clothes. Let's see how she acts.
Re:Nope (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the cloths are integral to her character. The provocative clothes, the bright yellow and red colors, the high contract bikini, the ruby red lipstick. It's all designed to draw your eyes to her. It says something about her, and the clothes that Faye wears in the Netflix adoption say something very different about her.
The sad thing in my mind is that it's a lost opportunity for a lesson that we should look deeper than appearances even when someone is showing off their attractiveness. If it was done right, every woman in the audience should hate Faye a little bit for being too perfect and too cocky. Every (straight) man in the audience should be lulled into enjoying her sexuality just like her marks. And by the end of the show, every single one of us should have to confront our thoughts as we learn just how incredibly depressed and hopeless she feels. If they wanted to get it right, they would hire an actress from the pole dancing community who has suffered through similar situations.
Re: (Score:2)
If it was done right, every woman in the audience should hate Faye a little bit for being too perfect and too cocky. Every (straight) man in the audience should be lulled into enjoying her sexuality just like her marks. And by the end of the show, every single one of us should have to confront our thoughts as we learn just how incredibly depressed and hopeless she feels.
Agreed, in every respect, since that was entirely the point of Cowboy Bebop. Every character in it was deeply damaged. Netflix almost can't depict them correctly because tragedies don't play well to Western audiences.
Considering they wrapped in March, I expect there will be a strong stench of Mandalorian about it. So, a typical American gunslinging Western, with all the Asian pathos and tragedy stripped out of it.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Faye uses sex to distract her marks and take advantage of them.
Yeah.... Portraying that is no longer allowed because wokism and SJWs.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I thought Spike looked like what you would expect based on the anime. Watanabe has said that he intended Spike to be a "typical old-style Japanese man".
I'm sure there are already comments from people about the live action series acting like they know more about what makes a "true" Cowboy Bebop than Shinichiro Watanabe.
Re: Nope (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Doubt me? Look at all the pictures from ArsTechnica. Dark. Every single one of them, including the one with all three on the couch.
They aren't even remotely dark enough to not follow action, except for the one on the couch, and it's just as well that is a marketing artwork and not film footage. You're quite presumptuous to base your opinion on the movie based on a couple of photos and compare it to something that is already far worse than the photos you use as an example.
I was going to write a diatribe about how this already looks to suck
I bet you judge a book by its cover in the most literal sense. Wrong font? Must be shit!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Oh totally, an Asian person could never ever be named Spike. There are laws about that, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Oh totally, an Asian person could never ever be named Spike. There are laws about that, right?
Of course an asian person could be named spike. The spiegel part is less common, though
Re: (Score:2)
So couldnt be mixed race, Asian from a non Asian country and took a local name, or was adopted by non Asian parents (to name just a few possible scenarios)?
A childhood friend of mine was ethnically 100% South Korean and his name was Noah Moore. At the end of the day it's just a name.
I know personally in watching the anime I never thought for a second Spike was a white guy, I just thought he had a bit of an exotic name for an Asian guy.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And when your protagonist's name is Spike Spiegel
https://www.ancestry.com/name-... [ancestry.com]
you do not cast a guy named John Cho. That is inverted whitewashing.
Except the guy apparently is canonically asian. I saw some randos bickering about this, just like you do here, and then someone posted a scan of a page from the manga where they very clearly referred to this 'Spike' as an oriental dude.
fair enough, except that the manga is the derived work.
But again fair enough, now we just need the maga page where motoko kusanagi is canonically a caucasian westerner.
Re: (Score:3)
The characters creator, Shinichiro Watanabe, described Spike as a "typical old-style Japanese man". He is drawn that way too, with darker skin than Faye for example, and traits like the skinny suit and cigarette habit. If you look at Japanese cinema/TV you see a lot of guys like that in it. In particular Tantei Monogatari served as inspiration.
Re: (Score:3)
The characters creator, Shinichiro Watanabe, described Spike as a "typical old-style Japanese man".
Spike Spiegel is a "typical old-style Japanese man"? Guess the name should've been a dead give-away.
Re: (Score:2)
Characters in Japanese adventure manga and anime often have Western-sounding names. Most characters in Attack on Titan do, for example, as do many in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, even though the characters are meant to be Japanese. I think these names are just supposed to sound fanciful, exciting, or exotic.
Re: (Score:2)
Right, but a lot of those (like Attack on Titan) actually seem to be set in the western world (or maybe "a western world" would be a better phrasing) rather than Japan. And a lot of anime seem to use mixed names if they want to indicate a character is (at least part) Japanese - such as Yomiko Readman and Nancy Makuhari in Read or Die (as opposed to Drake Anderson, who was obviously American).
Re: (Score:2)
We're talking about an anime set in the future. If current trends are any indication people will be more racially mixed in the future, and it will be less weird to have people have names that don't apparently match them. I just look like a big ol' white redneck (especially now that I'm back in a pickup truck and wearing a lot of camo hats, because they were free and they are more than one kind of camouflage) but I'm also a not-so-secret Mexican[-American]. Nobody would guess just by looking at me that I'm a
Re: (Score:3)
When the live action Ghost in the Shell movie came out, someone bothered to ask some Japanese pe
Re: (Score:2)
I think they just don't care about Western versions of Japanese stories very much, mostly because they have a history of being terrible. It also tends to feel weird and foreign because they Westernize the story and characters and dialogue.
Japan also has a culture of doing multiple versions of things for different audiences. Cowboy Bebop itself started as an anime, but was then made into a manga as well. There were some light novels I think too. It often goes far further than that, with multiple anime shows
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
When your protagonist's name is Motoko Kusanagi you do not cast a girl named Scarlet Johanson FFS! That is called whitewashing.
Kusangi is a full body replacement cyborg. She looks however she and her maker wants her to look. Your argument is invalid.
Re: (Score:2)
She even has flashbacks of her original body, which was that of a Japanese woman.
Re: (Score:2)
She even has flashbacks of her original body, which was that of a Japanese woman.
Except for the versions of her which were never born into a human body, where she was fitted with a cyborg body the moment she was delivered.
Spoiler, I guess, although Arise foreshadows that reveal so hard that a block of wood has caught on long before the reveal. Even I picked up on it, and I usually don't.
Re: (Score:2)
Also, I don't recall any time where Motoko wasn't a white woman (or little girl...), that is the character. The only one I can even think of that is likely Asian is Chief Aramaki:
https://ghostintheshell.fandom... [fandom.com]
Motoko in every edition looks pretty much like a white woman. In fact, Scarlet Johansen is a pretty good actor for her, she looks very much like Motoko in SAC.
https://ghostintheshell.fandom... [fandom.com]
Re: (Score:2)
In Stand Alone Complex Motoko Kusanagi is a pseudonym. She doesn't know her real name or even what her real body looked like. Given that the most popular shells are those of celebrities and the beautiful, the idea that she is somehow out of place because her shell is a white woman is fucking absurd.
Re: (Score:2)
And yet, despite all the main characters having Western names, they were all voiced by Asian actors in the original source material.
Something tells me the Japanese do not share your hangups.
And the music !!! (Score:3)
.The music for the original series is fantastic! One can hope the live action will use it.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
So, yay!
Re: (Score:3)
"Also returning from the anime is score composer Yoko Kanno."
So, yay!
She skillfully covers a lot of styles, but I especially like her Mingus-inspired jazz. I'll probably check out the show just to see what she's come up with.
Re: (Score:2)
sick (not cool sick, dumb sick) joke (Score:3)
There is nothing described that would encourage me to spend 2 seconds on this crap, or, maybe I will spend a few seconds, just so I can down-vote it. I will dig out my DVD set and watch it, again and again.
Fun idea, but . . . (Score:2)
Why can't they do Monster [imdb.com] instead? There was supposed to be a big-screen adaptation some time ago, but it never went anywhere. Oh yeah, apparently Del Toro wanted to do it and failed [comicbook.com].
Netflix is getting its lunch stolen (Score:2)
Something is missing: In the age of diversity (Score:2)
Just to name a few:
- Radical Edward
- Ed
- FranÃoise Appledelhi
- Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV
- Edward Wong
against my better judgement (Score:2)
...I'm guardedly optimistic. I shouldn't be. My brain tells me "It's going to be complete crap, they always are, don't get your hopes up" but the casting* has been ... good. I like those actors for those roles.
Big shoes to fill, though.
*the biggest casting question, Ed, being unanswered suggests to me that she isn't even in the show. Ed didn't show up early EITHER so ...I guess that's ok. That would be a crazy hard role to deliver.
Re: (Score:2)
I feel the same way, guardedly optimistic and wondering about Ed.
My biggest concern is actually about the music - what will it be like?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Millie Bobby Brown could have been awesome, but she's 17 already.
Uh, so wait (Score:2)
The True Indicator (Score:2)
Cowboy Bebop? (Score:2)
I guess I'll read the Wikipedia page to get some background and give it a shot. I didn't hate The Last Airbender live action, so my standards aren't that high.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of people, like yourself, don't have the patience for something like Cowboy Bebop any more. It doesn't make you wrong, mind you, you can like whatever you like. But a remake is going to have to be fundamentally different from the original if it's going to be a hit for Netflix, because only the fans would be satisfied with something with the same mood.
Re: (Score:2)
Fingers crossed... (Score:2)
I haven't been wowed by reboots in general (the Amazon reboot of "The Tick" was terrible - especially how great the original Ben Edlund/Patrick Warburton version was).
The visuals/settings look great. I can see some people don't like the actors chosen but that's a pretty superficial and it comes down to how they handle the characters. Where's Edward?
I would have liked to have seen a trailer for the series to see how seamless things move between planet/spaceship/zero-gee. Don't forget that when the Beb
"Cult" hit? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
You should check out another animated cult hit - The Simpsons. It's a hidden treasure!