One Piece, Cowboy Bebop Team to Produce Samurai Champloo Live-Action With Shinichiro Watanabe Over 20 Years On

Variety reports that the One Piece and Cowboy Bebop live-action production company Tomorrow Studios is developing a live-action adaptation of Samurai Champloo, with the series’ creator Shinichiro Watanabe attached. The project is in early development with no streaming/broadcast destination confirmed, but Tomorrow Studios’ Becky Clements says they’ve received “a lot of calls.”

Variety adds that the Samurai Champloo adaptation will ‘retain the core elements,‘ while the material would be ‘updat[ed] for a contemporary television audience.‘ Music will be a central theme, the studio planning to ‘bring in a major recording artist early to help establish the show’s sound.‘

“We had dinner with [Watanabe] in Japan and said, if we move forward on doing ‘Samurai Champloo,’ we really want you to be a part of the creative,” Clements told Variety. “We were thrilled that he was willing to do that.”

Tomorrow Studios is producing the One Piece live-action alongside Netflix and Shueisha. It previously co-produced the Cowboy Bebop live-action, which proved polarizing and was canceled after one season. Clements says that Watanabe was less involved creatively. Tomorrow Studios’ Marty Adelstein says, “We’ve learned. Having the creator there to bless the creative is really important.” One Piece creator Eiichiro has been particularly involved with the series, supervising the scripts, casting, and more.

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Samurai Champloo will adapt the anime series of the same name, directed and conceived by Watanabe, along with Shinji Obara (chief scriptwriter), Kazuto Nakazawa (character designer and chief animation director), Mahiro Maeda (emono designer), Takeshi Waki (art designer), Eri Suzuki (color stylist), Kazuhiro Yamada (photography), Syuichi Kakesu (editor); music composition by Tsutchie, fat jon, Nujabes, and FORCE OF NATURE; and Border Line (Techno Sound), Yoshimoto Ishikawa (music producer). The now-defunct studio manglobe was responsible for animation production.

Crunchyroll streams Samurai Champloo in the United States, describing the series:
Mugen is a ferocious, animalistic warrior with a fighting style inspired by break-dancing. Jin is a ronin samurai who wanders the countryside alone. They may not be friends, but their paths continually cross. And when ditzy waitress Fuu gets them out of hot water with the local magistrate, they agree to join her search for the samurai who smells like sunflowers.

Source: Dream Land Anime
© 2004 manglobe/Shimoigusa Champloos

Source: Dream Land Anime