Actor Chris Pratt has established himself as a go-to star for big-budget action-adventure films, from galactic defender in 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” to raptor wrangler in 2015’s “Jurassic World” to cowboy in the 2016 “Magnificent Seven” remake. That’s not bad for starting out as a memorable slacker character in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.” He has also made waves as a voice actor for animated movies. He as Emmet Brickowski made everything in “The Lego Movie” (2014) awesome. Recently he was even tapped to voice Super Mario in an upcoming animated adaptation of the Nintendo character. Now, he might even be the latest to voice comic strips’ most famous cat.

That may have been a big giveaway for comic-strip readers. Yes, Comic Book Resources tells us Chris Pratt is being courted for the voice role of Garfield the cat in a planned animated film. The project has some heavyweight creative people who have worked on Disney animation, such as writer David Reynolds (“Finding Nemo”) and director Mark Dindal (“Chicken Little”). Production will be handled by Alcon Entertainment, which acquired the film rights from “Garfield” creator Jim Davis, while Sony Pictures will distribute the movie worldwide (excluding China). Animation will be done by DNEG Studios, which worked on “Ron’s Gone Wrong” by now-closed Blue Sky Studios.

Aside from the creative team and the possible lead voice actor in Pratt, there are no further details on this new big-screen take on “Garfield.” The first cinematic-release adaptation was from 20th Century Fox in 2004, a live-action film featuring Garfield as a CGI-animated feline actor, voiced by Bill Murray. After the sequel “A Tale of Two Kitties” in 2006, further movies were 3D-animated and direct-to-video. Alcon gained the movie rights from Davis in 2016, but development has stalled until word of Pratt’s possible casting.

Chris Pratt is well-known particularly to young audiences for his wide variety of characters: Owen Grady the raptor wrangler, Star-Lord, and Emmet for starters. While he featured in only one film each in 2020 (“Onward”) and this 2021 (“Tomorrow War”), for 2022 he will be in no less than three blockbuster movies. Pratt will reprise Star-Lord in Marvel Studio’s MCU installment “Thor: Love and Thunder,” starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman. Next, he will be back as Owen Grady for “Jurassic World: Dominion.” Finally, the “Super Mario” animated movie will also premiere next year. As for “Garfield,” no release year has been given for it.

Image from The Hollywood Reporter

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