Despite the presence of noted rapper and newly minted movie star Chris Pratt, a movie called Cowboy Ninja Viking has the potential to fall into the purgatory of bad mashup movies—that same stretch of highway that Cowboys & Aliens wanders, forever howling the numbers of its weak box-office tally. Still, Universal Pictures is doing its best to avoid that fate, as Variety reports that the studio has made an offer to David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, the directors of the excellent John Wick.
Based on the Image comics series, the project stars Pratt as the film’s namesake, a government super-solider with the attributes of three marketing-friendly archetypes. Pratt has supposedly met with the directors and given his approval for the hire, which is both how A) Chris Pratt now knows he’s a mega-star, and B) we know the studio desperately wants to lock down Pratt, as his Google calendar is rapidly filling up with both the Guardians Of The Galaxy sequel and the remake of The Magnificent Seven scheduled to shoot this spring. The actor has been tweeting his excitement regarding Cowboy Ninja Viking, though, so Universal should probably start playing it cool if it wants to reel in Andy Dwyer—keep it brusque, April Ludgate-style.