I wasn’t expecting the rumor mill to kick into gear so soon, but it looks like some “reliable source” has said that Keanu Reeves has been “attached” as the role of Spike Spiegal in the recently revealed FOX Cowboy Bebop live action movie. Huh. Well, that’s interesting. I don’t really think anyone expected any big name actors to sign on for any of these upcoming US-made anime live action movies. I certainly didn’t, anyway, and I’m not quite sure that I want Mr. Reeves to be Spike. I’m having a hard time picturing it — what about you?
It isn’t really that I have anything against the man. He suited Neo for the Matrix trilogy, and I liked him in Constantine. I haven’t seen any/many of his other movies though, so that’s all I have to go by. I just don’t feel like his on-screen presence and personality suits Spike at all. Neo was quiet, questioning, and reserved. Constantine was a little more fighty, but still didn’t read as badass, and we all know that Spike is badass. He’s snarky and sarcastic and impatient. I just can’t picture Reeves being like that. Does he play a similar character in any of his other movies?
If the rumor is true though, I’d be willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. After all, no one was excited about Heath Ledger taking over the Joker initially, and we all saw how that turned out. But if Reeves does turn out to be Spike, that’d makes me wonder — who else will be cast for this movie? More big name actors? Or shall the rest be a motley lot? Honestly, I don’t know enough actors to be able to stipulate who would be a good option. Japanator’s accompanying picture to the original acquisition announcement provides some very unlikely choices, though unlikely as it is, Johnny Depp as Spike Spiegal is interesting to consider. As much as I love the man, I’m not really sure he’d suit the role either. But I’d have more confidence in his abilities to adapt to it as I’ve seen him do it for a lot more movies than Reeves. Hmm.
The rest of the rumor stipulates that the movie will be put on the “fast track” and be released by 2010. I find this highly unlikely since I think most studios would want to wait to see how Dragonball does in the box office first before blowing too big a huge budget on a niche film. Then again, unlike most anime titles, Cowboy Bebop would be more readily accessible to a general audience because many of the storylines are standalone, there isn’t too gigantic of a cast, and the themes are popular enough in general. FOX hasn’t even made any official announcement about this yet anyway, so I’m definitely taking these rumors with a huge grain of salt, but it’s fun to speculate, I suppose.
Hm. Whoa. Whoa, what? Poking through Keanu Reeves’ Wikipedia article reveals that he’s on the cast list for the live action Akira? What? When did that happen?? If he’s on for Akira, I can only imagine that he’d be casted for either Tetsuo or Kaneda. The Akira wiki article says that Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are signed on for Kaneda and Tetsuo, which I can kind of see working out okay. Where does that leave Reeves though? The mad scientist? The military guy? Unfortunately, I haven’t read the Akira manga, so I can’t guess about any of the characters that weren’t in the movie. Curious, though, very curious. Considering Akira is supposed to also come out next year, I’m kind of surprised we haven’t heard that much about it…
Oh, hey. I completely forgot that they’re also doing a Ghost in the Shell live action. Who’s badass enough to play Motoko Kusanagi!? She’d probably be even harder to cast for than Spike. Eesh.
Eh… I find it difficult to comprehend Spike possibly being played by Keanu Reeves. And that’s not just because of his appearance. Based on the roles he has played in, I’m not sure he’ll be able to deviate from that same sort of personality he’s taken upon in most of his roles to be able to properly play Spike. [Shrug] We’ll see, I suppose.
Interesting topic.
~A
That’s my main concern as well. Most of Reeves’ characters take on the same sort of personality and/or have the same sort of air to them. Spike doesn’t fit with his filmography. I’m still not sure about the validity of this rumor, anyway, but we’ll just have to see.