Entertainment news website Deadline has reported that Tomorrow Studios, a collaborative project by Marty Adelstein (Prison Break, Teen Wolf) and ITV Studios is in works to produce a live-action adaptation of the popular anime Cowboy Bebop in the form of a television series. Chris Yost (Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok) will be writing the adaptation.

Co-producing the series will be Sunrise, the studio, led by director Shinichirō Watanabe, which animated the original series, along with Adelstein, Becky Clements (Good Behavior, Aquarius), and Midnight Radio (Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Jeff Pinkner & Scott Rosenberg).

“We are excited to work with Sunrise in bringing this beloved anime to the U.S. and global marketplace as a live-action series,” said Adelstein, reports Deadline. “The animated version has long resonated with audiences worldwide, and with the continued, ever growing, popularity of anime, we believe a live action version will have an incredible impact today.”

Live-action adaptations of Japanese animation in the past have resulted in some heated takes, particularly the casting choices of the recent Ghost in the Shell live-action feature. With the sprawling sci-fi Western universe of Cowboy Bebop, we expect less controversy regarding race, and instead more concern regarding living up to the 1998 series that built it's critical success on it's hybrid of episodic and over-arching stylish storytelling, and almost unanimously praised jazz soundtrack by Yoko Kanno.


By - grape Japan editorial staff.