It's official: Keanu Reeves is Spike Siegel

by Chris MaGee

Back in mid-December we told you how "Matrix" star Keanu Reeves wanted to play Spike Siegel in a proposed live-action Hollywood remake of Shinichiro Watanabe's "Cowboy Bebop". Now it looks like that it isn't just a hope on Reeves part anymore. According to Variety Asia Online the 44-year-old actor has officially signed onto star as the captain of the starship Bebop. The live-action "Cowboy Bebop" will be produced by 3 Arts and Erwin Stoff, the man behind Reeves latest film "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and the script is being penned by Peter Craig, a writer and director who up to this point has only three short films to his name. No director has yet signed on to the project.

The good news for fans of the original anime is that creator Shinichiro Watanabe will be involved in the film as an associate producer along with Keiko Nobumoto and Masahiko Minami, the original writer and producer of the original "Cowboy Bebop".