After a breakout, blockbuster genre franchise hit, some actors like to retreat to the safety and 'credibility' of a gritty low-budget indie drama or two. Not so for Chris Pratt. Still a star of Parks And Recreation, he managed to find time to follow Guardians Of The Galaxy with a little thing called Jurassic World, and has now chosen his next role in another nascent comic book franchise. He'll star as lead assassin Duncan in Universal's developing **Cowboy Ninja Viking.
Created by writer A. J. Lieberman and artist Riley Rossmo, Cowboy Ninja Viking is an Image Comics series about secret counter-intelligence agents with multiple personality disorders. Various suitable candidates for the 'Triplet' programme were brought together by psychotherapist Dr. Sebastian Ghislain, but when the project collapsed, the subjects went their own ways as hired assassins.
Pratt's Duncan then, just to be clear, will not be an *actual Cowboy Ninja Viking: those are the personality types that have been corralled in his mind for maximum effectiveness (although Collider believe that Pratt's appearance will change onscreen according to which skill-set Duncan is using). Other characters we encounter in the comic series include Duncan's brother Carl (Staff Sergeant - Apache - Highlander); Steed Malbranque (Hitman - Navy SEAL - Dokken roadie); Lara St. Britt (Air Hostess - Joan Of Arc - Amazon); and Grear Fulkirk, whose Sniper - Chef - Martial Artist designation surely makes him Seagal in Under Siege.
The movie has been in the works for some time. The comics were first published in 2009 and as early as 2010 Disney had the Zombieland team of Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese working on an adaptation. That version went into turnaround in 2012, and Universal picked it up when Disney dropped it, choosing Marc Forster (Quantum Of Solace, World War Z) to direct.
Forster is no longer attached, meaning the director's chair is currently vacant. The IMDb lists Craig Mazin (The Hangover trilogy, Scary Movie 3 and 4) as a writer along with Wernick and Reese, but whether any of those drafts remain in play is unclear. Mark Gordon (Source Code, TV's Criminal Minds) and production house Film360 are behind this one.
Presumably not the ex-Spurs, Fulham and Lyon midfielder.