Something’s very wrong with Cowboy Ninja Viking. The adaptation of the Image Comics graphic novel, starring Chris Pratt and Priyanka Chopra, has suddenly, mysteriously, been pulled from the release schedule by Universal.
It’s not uncommon for big movies to see set-backs, but with filming due to start in under a month, and production now delayed indefinitely, things don’t look good for the film.
Cowboy Ninja Viking was due to be the directorial debut of Michelle MacLaren (Game Of Thrones), adapted from the cult comic by A.J. Lieberman and Riley Rossmo. A film version of the graphic novel has been in the works since at least 2010, with the project being passed from Marc Forster (World War Z) to David Leitch (John Wick) to MacLaren, who was working from a script originally drafted by Deadpool’s Paul Wernick and Everett David Reese.
The film had cast Pratt as Duncan, an assassin able to channel the fighting skills of a cowboy, ninja and Viking after a bout of shadowy government psychiatric conditioning. Still listed as being in “active development”, there’s no word yet on if and when the adaptation will get off the ground again – or even what caused the problem in the first place.
But with Pratt’s schedule tied up with Jurassic World 3, original western The Kid, and voice work on The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, it might be tricky to get him back on board at all if the cameras don’t start rolling soon.
Hopefully whatever happened gets sorted out before the film stalls altogether.