Cowboy Bebop production halted 7-9 months following on-set injury to John Cho
Not even two weeks into the start of production on the live-action adaptation of the acclaimed Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop, Netflix has announced that filming on the series is going on hiatus for 7-9 months following a freak accident involving star John Cho (Star Trek Beyond), according to Deadline.
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The 10-episode adaptation stars Cho, Elena Satine, Mustafa Shakir, Danielle Pineda, and Alex Hassell. Cho will play Spike Spiegel while Satine portrays Julia. Shakir (Luke Cage) will play good cop Jet Black, Pineda (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) will play the bounty hunter Faye Valentine, and Hassell (Suburbicon) will play Vicious, Spike’s vindictive ex-partner.
The on-set accident reportedly happened on the final take of a well-rehearsed scene, seeing Cho suffering a knee injury that required him to be flown back to Los Angeles for surgery and will require seven to nine months of rehabilitation, with the show staying on hiatus until his prognosis becomes clear. Cho took to Instagram to ensure fans of his safety and promise to return.
The live-action Cowboy Bebop will be a 10-episode series co-produced by Netflix and Tomorrow Studios, with Netflix handling the physical production.
Christopher Yost wrote the first episode and serves as an executive producer. Andre Nemec, Josh Appelbaum, Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio will handle showrunning and executive producer duties. Other executive producers include Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios (Snowpiercer, Good Behavior); Yasuo Miyakawa, Masayuki Ozaki, and Shin Sasaki of Sunrise Inc; Tetsu Fujimura and Matthew Weinberg. The director of the original anime series, Shinichiro Watanabe, is acting as a consultant.
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Cowboy Bebop first premiered in 1998 and tells the story of The Bebop crew, intergalactic loners who team up to track down fugitives and turn them in for cold hard cash. Among the crew is Spike Spiegel, a hero whose cool façade hides a dark and deadly past; the pilot Jet, a bruiser of a brute who can’t wait to collect the next bounty; and Faye Valentine, a femme fatale prone to breaking hearts and separating fools from their money. Set against the backdrop of space in the year 2017, along for the ride are the brilliant, but weird, hacker Ed, and a super-genius Welsh Corgi named Ein.
The series ran for just 26 episodes and one special in the late 1990s and later had a feature film, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, released in 2001 and set during the series instead of serving as a follow-up.
(Photo Credit: Backgrid Images)
