Live Action Anime

Credit goes to the UK’s NEO magazine for this bit of news. Word has it that Masahiro Minami, producer on Studio BONES’ chambara epic Sword of the Stranger, and alumnus of Sunrise Studio, will be serving as a “creative manager” in the upcoming 20th Century Fox adaptation of Cowboy Bebop.

Minami says, “In terms of my role, I’ll be checking that the world view, the atmosphere, the feeling of the TV series is there. We’re very aware that we have lots of fans of Cowboy Bebop and we don’t want to disappoint them with the live-action movie.”

It seems that this time around, Fox are pulling out all the stops to remain as faithful to the source material as possible. However, Minami acknowledges that some disparities will – and indeed, must – be present. “I think it’s only natural that the live-action version will be different to the animation, as they’re completely different mediums [sic]. If they weren’t different, there’d be no point in making the movie. I think the challenge will be as I said, making sure that the same characterisation, the same emotion from the series is in there.”