It has spent a few years wandering in the development limbo zone, but after scoring a 2019 release date last year, high concept action pic Cowboy Ninja Viking has a director to call the shots on Chris Pratt and whoever else fills out the cast. Breaking Bad and Game Of Thrones' Michelle MacLaren is that director.
Created by writer A. J. Lieberman and artist Riley Rossmo, Cowboy Ninja Viking is an Image Comics series about secret counter-intelligence agents with multiple personality disorders. Various suitable candidates for the 'Triplet' programme were brought together by psychotherapist Dr. Sebastian Ghislain, but when the project collapsed, the subjects went their own ways as hired assassins. Pratt will be Duncan, one of the assassins with the personalities stuffed into their noggins.
MacLaren's hiring is another hopeful step forward for the film, which has had trouble holding on to directors; Marc Forster and John Wick duo Chad Stahelski and David Leitch have all been attached at one point or another, though no one has stuck around. Now, though, MacLaren will have the opportunity to step up into big budget filmmaking after initially being hired to tackle Wonder Woman before departing due to creative differences. She is also on board a World War II drama called Nightingale, but given Cowboy's set release date, it appears this will be her big screen debut. With the latest draft of the script in hand from Craig Mazin, Universal has set a 28 June, 2019 release for the movie.
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