Erwin Stoff is not one of those names that leaps out at you because he is a producer. Less in the limelight. He did manage to bring us Constantine and I Am Legend among others, and now while talking about his new series Kings he slipped that he has signed on for a live action adaptation of the Japanese series Cowboy Bebop.
IF Magazine quotes Erwin Stoff:
“I’m developing COWBOY BEBOP for Fox, but doing it as a live-action film, so I’m working on that at the moment,” Stoff tells iF. “I’m really excited to be working on it, and it’s in the really early stages. We just signed it the other day.”
So not much more about it is known short of the fact that they are going to do one.
I know very little about Cowboy Bebop short of what my friends who dig anime say. Apparently it is a good show which I am repeatedly encouraged to watch. Just never got around to it. Quick digging online reveals why they think I would like it.
The story seems to have some more adult-ish themes, deals with a crew of bounty hunters, and an interwoven story of its cast of characters. It takes place in a distant future where cultures are nearly blended to one society and other planets like Mars have striving cities. Judging by some of the artwork, the style is pretty sharp.
An interesting thing might be the lead character’s trademarked cigarette always hanging from his mouth. Simply having the hero be a smoker could tempt the new ratings scale making this more adult than maybe Fox would want to market it as. Will they forego the cig to keep the movie more demographically broad? Realisticly, even if the original material is more adult, tweaking it to be more teen friendly opens up a lot more doors. And you know that they won’t be targeting the existing fanbase to fill the seats.
I am going to try and check out some of Cowboy Bebop anime pretty soon, and keep an eye out for this project.
