Speaking to MTV News, Keanu Reeves has offered up a slight update on the live-action adaptation of the anime series Cowboy Bebop, in which he’ll be playing the lead role of Spike Spiegel. Reeves mentions that a draft of the script currently exists, penned by Peter Craig, but it’s apparently too elaborate to be filmed. The current script would require a budget of near-Avatar proportions—Reeves mentions that Fox thinks it would cost around $500 million.

The clip from Keanu Reeves with MTV is below


I am happy that they are shooting high with the
Cowboy Bebop script. It let's me know that they really think that in order for this to be done justice it needs to be huge. Which I think is true. Also, it makes sense as a director to write a proposal that is huge, knowing that you may have to scale back anyway. As for Keanu as Spike? I'm not so sure I'm down with that casting. I mean, he can do it, I have no doubt about that. But I am a bit worried this will just feel a little too much like Neo in a different universe. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.