Cowboy Ninja Viking, a long gestating adaptation of the Image Comics graphic novel, was initially announced years ago at Universal with Chris Pratt on board to star. However, this was before Pratt had honed his franchise skills with lead roles in Guardians Of The Galaxy and Jurassic World, leaving the film sitting around twiddling its thumbs.
Now, it looks to be finally moving forward with a brand new director. Michelle MacLaren, the critically acclaimed director of episodes of Breaking Bad, Game Of Thrones, and Westworld is finally making the jump to cinema and will make her feature film debut with Cowboy Ninja Viking.
It’s interesting to note that MacLaren was initially poised to make her feature length directorial debut with Wonder Woman, before she departed the project a few months into production over creative differences – reports suggest she wanted to set the film in an even earlier time period than World War I – and Patty Jenkins replaced her.
MacLaren has been a hot commodity thanks to her work on some of the most acclaimed shows on TV, and even immediately after leaving Wonder Woman she signed on to executive produce and direct the season one finale of HBO’s The Deuce, another acclaimed series to add to her resume.
But it’s exciting that she’s finally ready to make her own movie. Cowboy Ninja Viking revolves around an assassin who possesses the skills of each titular persona. The script originated from Zombieland and Deadpool writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, with the most recent draft penned by Craig Mazin (Identity Thief, The Hangover Part III).
With those writers on board, you’d expect the film to have plenty of comedic elements to it, and it’ll be intriguing to see what MacLaren does with the source material. Further details are scant right now, but we do know that Universal has already set a release date for the film, June 28, 2019, so expect the cast and crew to begin production sometime this year.
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