Anime adaptations seem to be all the rage nowadays, with Masamune Shirow’s “Ghost in the Shell” getting the live-action treatment à la the ill-received Scarlett Johansson blockbuster, and it looks like Shinichiro Watanabe’s beloved “Cowboy Bebop” is up next. Variety reported Tuesday that Tomorrow Studios is developing a live-action television series adaptation for the 1998 anime.
A futuristic space Western, “Cowboy Bebop” tells the story of Spike Spiegel and his band of bounty hunters known as “cowboys” as they wander the galaxies hunting down criminals.
Watanabe’s “Cowboy” aired on Adult Swim in the late ’90s and early ’00s, making the anime nostalgic territory for fans who remember watching it on TV. The recent whitewashing controversy surrounding the release of “Ghost in the Shell” is also still fresh in many viewers’ minds. Although many receive the news of the adaptation with cautious optimism, many others remain reluctant to entrust the responsibility of turning this cult classic into a live-action series to Tomorrow and company.
Tomorrow is developing the series in partnership with Sunrise Inc., the production studio responsible for the original anime, along with Midnight Radio, Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements and Matthew Weinberg. Chris Yost of “Thor” fame will write.
Fans took to Twitter to voice their concerns:
I don’t know about this… but open mind.
— Lucy Sky (@PaperbackLucy) June 6, 2017
A Cowboy Bebop live action film will suck.
— ✞✞✞ (@lilpapisatan) June 6, 2017
i go to my job, work hard. i dont deserve to come home to have a shitty live action cowboy bebop remake be announced.
— nice hill (@gromszgrad) June 6, 2017
Can studios stop making live action animes? Dragonball Evolution should have been the first and last to try. Cowboy Bebop does not need one.
— Jesse True (@JesseTrue3) June 6, 2017
Adelstein told Deadline that he was “excited to work with Sunrise in bringing this beloved anime to the U.S.” “Cowboy Bebop” has been a favorite of anime lovers for decades, and is considered by fans to be one of the best anime series of all time.
