Chris Pratt’s movie adaptation of the comic book series Cowboy Ninja Viking has finally landed a release date. In recent years, Pratt has had a number of successful film projects he’s been juggling, including the smash Guardians of the Galaxy films, the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, and the worldwide blockbuster Jurassic World and its 2018 sequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
All the while, though, Pratt has been keeping a passion project simmering on the back burner, and it appears that fans are finally going to see it in the summer of 2019.
In a tweet posted Tuesday by Jeff Sneider of movie production info site The Tracking Board, Cowboy Ninja Viking will be released on June 28, 2019. The release of Cowboy Ninja Viking has been a long-time coming for Pratt, who became attached to the project in 2014. See Sneider’s tweet announcing the release below:
Given the actor’s comedic past in Guardians and on TV’s Parks and Recreation, Cowboy Ninja Viking has Pratt’s quirky sensibilities written all over it. Pratt will play Duncan, a member of a counter intelligence unit that’s made up of patients suffering from multiple personality disorder. Originally released in 2009, the premise of Cowboy Ninja Viking follows Duncan, who channels the personalities of a cowboy, a ninja and a Viking in order to find rogue members of the counter intelligence unit – who are known as Triplets – after the unit implodes.
BREAKING: @PrattPrattPratt’s COWBOY NINJA VIKING to hit theaters on June 28, 2019.— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) August 8, 2017
The next big step for Cowboy Ninja Viking will be for the film to land a director, and given Tuesday’s revelation of the release date, news about who will take the helm should come sometime soon. Previously, John Wick co-directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski were project, but Leitch moved on to direct Deadpool 2 after director Tim Miller’s departure from the Deadpool 2.
Also, there’s no word on the status of the script, which Deadpool screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were hired to pen in 2010. Reese and Wernick certainly have their hands full at the moment as the scribes of Deadpool 2, plus their in pre-production on the sequel to their hit comedy Zombieland.
The news of the release date for Cowboy Ninja Viking comes as somewhat a surprise, considering that the last time Pratt talked publicly about the project was in April. At the time, Pratt said the film was still in development and the production was looking for a director, but he did note, however, that the film was going to be produced by Universal Pictures. Considering Universal is behind the Jurassic World films, the deal to distribute Cowboy Ninja Viking makes sense, and it also says a lot of about the studio’s feelings about the bankability of Pratt.
Source: Jeff Sneider
