‘Cowboy Ninja Viking’ Adaptation Being Directed By Mark Forster.

I’ve got a lot of love for the comic Cowboy Ninja Viking  by AJ Lieberman and Riley Rossmo. It’s hilarious, psychotic, and gorgeous to behold. Pure kinetic madness. However it was canceled far too soon, and so I’ve sort of forgotten about it or its upcoming movie adaptation.

Brain! Meet remembrance.

I Heart Chaos:

Even though director Mark Forster still is working on the film adaptation of World War Z, he’s already got another project in the pipes– a movie adaptation of the graphic novel ‘Cowboy Ninja Viking’.

The graphic novel and a Disney-developed script by Zombieland writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese were acquired by Universal after the script came in and was deemed too edgy for Disney’s family film mandate. The intention is to begin production later this year, after Forster completes the Brad Pitt-starrer World War Z for Paramount and Skydance. The hope is to spawn a franchise.

Cowboy Ninja Viking is based on the Image Comics graphic novel by AJ Lieberman and artist Riley Rossmo. The title character comes from a secret government program to turn schizophrenics into assassins. The protagonist comes through the program with the skill sets of a cowboy, ninja and a viking. While most of the patients involved in the program are sent back to insane asylum after the program went awry in Iraq, he escapes and uses his skills to track down the billionaire who masterminded the program.  

The film will be produced by Guymon Casady, Ben Forkner, Mark Gordon and Bryan Zuriff through MG360, the joint venture between The Mark Gordon Co and Management 360. Wernick & Reese are also producing. The scribes are repped by WME, and Forster by CAA and Management 360.

I don’t know much about Mark Forster, but the  Zombieland  writers are the perfect dudes to rip off a script for this irreverent mess of a comic. I’m interested in seeing what becomes of it.