Chris Pratt may or may not be on the verge of becoming the next Indiana Jones, but before that happens he has a few other big projects that he is attached to star in. Jurassic World is out this summer and obviously there is Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on the horizon plus there’s a remake of The Magnificent Seven scheduled to happen somewhere in there as well. All of those are known quantities to a certain extent, but there is another movie that he will be starring in for Universal Pictures that could potentially start a brand new franchise. Cowboy Ninja Viking is based on the Image Comics series about a super-soldier trained to use the fighting styles of a cowboy, a ninja and a viking. It seems like it has the potential to be a fun genre mash-up, assuming they can find the right director to make it happen. Now we are hearing that Universal actually has two directors in mind: the filmmaking duo behind the recent Keanu Reeves action flick John Wick.

According to Variety, David Leitch and Chad Stahelski are in early talks to direct Cowboy Ninja Viking for Universal Pictures. The project was originally set up at Disney before changing hands to Universal with Marc Forster (World War Z) at the helm. Forster has since dropped out and now Universal is looking to fast-track the project because of the fact that Chris Pratt is in such high demand.

It seems safe to assume that Leitch and Stahelski are also getting a fair amount of interest after the success of John Wick, which was made on a modest budget of just $20 million. The duo previously worked for years as stunt co-ordinators and second unit directors on such films as Ninja Assassin, The Expendables 2 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Obviously they have the action chops and Chris Pratt supposedly met with them and gave them his seal of approval so now an offer has gone out and we will await further confirmation. Do you have any interest in Cowboy Ninja Viking?