Award winning production designer Gary MacKay is a native New Zealander, who forged his path in the industry through his involvement with Weta in their infancy.
In two movies from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he made an impression as head armourist on Peter Jackson’s magnum opus. From there he moved in art direction on projects including Marco Polo, while also keeping a foot in film through Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. More recently his work on Crazy Rich Asians and The Luminaries has seen him diversify into new territory, which in turn has led to Cowboy Bebop.
This live action adaptation of the confirmed anime classic melds genre, epitomises cool and allowed Gary to create something indelible from an already iconic property. To coincide with its recent release, Gary took time out to talk to Martin Carr about his approach and what makes Cowboy Bebop so unique.
COWBOY BEBOP is an action-packed space Western about three bounty hunters, aka “cowboys,” all trying to outrun the past. As different as they are deadly, Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) form a scrappy, snarky crew ready to hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals — for the right price. But they can only kick and quip their way out of so many scuffles before their pasts finally catch up with them.
Cowboy Bebop features a cast that includes John Cho, Mustafa Shakir, Daniella Pineda, Alex Hassell, Elena Satine, Geoff Stults, Tamara Tunie, Mason Alexander Park, Rachel House and Ann Truong.
Cowboy Bebop is available to stream now on Netflix.
