Keanu Reeves to Star in ‘Cowboy Bebop’

Remember a while back when we reported that Keanu Reeves has a serious love for anime? So much so that he wanted to star in a live action version of the popular Japanese series Cowboy Bebop? According to Variety, the actor’s dream is about to become a reality. Reeves will star in the Bebop film as Spike Spiegel, the show’s main character who makes a living as a space traveling bounty hunter. No other casting has been made for the adaptation so far, but I’m sure rumors will start swirling around soon enough. The film’s screenplay will be written by Peter Craig, whose credits include The Climatic Death of a Ninja, and Nevel is the Devil.

More on Bebop after the jump.

Sunrise Inc., which produces the anime series, will be closely involved with the development of the English-language project. Sunrise’s Kenji Uchida and Shinichiro Watanabe will serve as associate producers alongside series writer Keiko Nobumoto. Series producer Masahiko Minami will serve as a production consultant.

Just to save you some confusion, Bebop is the name of the space ship that Spike travels on with several other bounty hunters, its not an actual person. For some odd reason people always get confused by that. Cowboy Bebop originally aired in Japan in 1998, and eventually made it’s American debut on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim animation block. The film is currently in preproduction, and will be released by 20th Century Fox.