© Disney
With 56 super franchise movies coming at ya in the next six years, The Beat has been keeping an eye on whether any of those zillions of non Marvel/DC comics options might be getting closer to the screen. And the answer is sort of yes. For instance Cowboy, Ninja Viking, written by AJ Lieberman and drawn (in spectacular fashion) by Riley Rossmo came out from Image in 2009, five years ago. It was published in the briefly-trendy Golden Age size and was one of the first books to introduce the now ubiquitous limited-palette/expressionist art style that you find in so many comics.
With a catchy title and high concept—intelligence operative is a multiple personality with Cowboy, Ninja and Viking and personas—an option was inevitable. But that’s as much as you usually hear about these projects.
But now it’s roared back to life with the rumor that it-boy Chris Pratt, fresh off his dreamy, funny, Modern-Han-Solo role as Starlord, may be in talks to star in a Cowboy, Ninja, Viking movie:
A Cowboy Ninja Viking movie has been kicking around for a few years now. Zombieland scribes Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese initially penned the adaptation for Disney, which deemed the resulting script “too edgy”. Universal subsequently picked it up out of turnaround and a few years ago attached Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace) to direct, though he’s no longer involved with the project.
[snip] Though a director is not yet set for the film, attaching Pratt as the lead will no doubt attract interest from a number of filmmakers. Film 360 is producing the project, as is Mark Gordon, who is also producing the Aaron Sorkin-penned Steve Jobs biopic at Sony.
So there you go, a catchy title and a decent concept and this project won’t fade away.
I expect to see a lot of these floating around comic projects get their tires kicked over the next few months.
As I recall, Craig Mazin was working on a version of this script, too. You know him best as the other host on the Script Notes podcast with John August. He mentioned it briefly a few months back…
Wish Image would start turning down some of these guys just looking to turn their spec script into a comic. It’s really diluting their brand.