Cowboy Bebop Live-Action Will Not Suck

Because if it does suck, Sunrise won't approve it. That is the face-saving clause that the Japanese studio insisted on including in the contract it signed with 20th Century Fox, for the upcoming live-action movie based on Cowboy Bebop. As the 1998 anime's original creator, Sunrise seems to have played hard to get with the American giant, as the negociations dragged on for two years "until agreeable contract terms were drafted", according to a report from last week's Tokyo Anime Fair (via ANN).



The Cowboy Bebop live-action film adaptation was officially announced earlier this year, and the reason for all the hub-hub around it is Keanu Reeves's fervent involvement in the project. In fact, Sunrise president Kenji Uchida admitted that the passion of the Christ Keanu Reeves was the deciding factor for the deal.

"Keanu Reeves' enthusiasm for its Cowboy Bebop anime was the deciding factor in the recent live-action film deal. Uchida said Reeves (The Matrix, A Scanner Darkly, Johnny Mnemonic) himself visited Japan twice to express his interest in adapting the stylized science-fiction anime, and added that if Reeves had not done so, the deal might not have been made."

Even so, despite - or rather because of - Reeves' presence at the top of the film's cast, concerns from the anime's Western followers linger on. To ease their minds, Uchida's pleading culminated with a pretty convincing argument:

"If the script is terrible, the live-action film adaptation will not be approved."

So they can veto the script. But can they veto Keanu Reeves' pseudo-acting?