Chris Pratt Doing Karate For Comedy In A New Movie That Isn’t Johnny Karate
Chris Pratt is returning to the world of karate. Super awesome!
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Chris Pratt has had some experience with karate before, though not totally in a technical or *real* way. On Parks and Recreation, Pratt’s Andy Dwyer character had another sub-character named Johnny Karate who was a spin-kicking, yellow-belt-wearing kids party singer who also dabbled in fictitious martial arts. It sounds ridiculous, but for Dwyer, it completely worked. Now Chris Pratt might step things up a notch when it comes to his Kin Geri or Fumikomi moves. He’s set to star in and produce a new movie in which he moves from karate student to sensei.
The new movie is tentatively titled The Black Belt and Chris Pratt will star as the uncle to a teenager who is looking to improve his karate training. Pratt, presumably. acts as both mentor and guide to the teen. I’m thinking Mr. Miyagi but instead of that overwhelming sense of power and pride coupled with sage-like wisdom, you get pratfalls and overwhelming comedic hijinks from a dude who looks like anything but the head of a dojo. I can already envision plenty of Johnny Karate-like moves.
The Black Belt was penned by Randall Green who also wrote 2019’s The Perfect Date and was a contributing writer on Showtime’s Billions. Chris Pratt’s production house optioned the script and will adapt it. And he obviously liked the movie enough to cast himself in the lead role. No other casting or directing decisions have been made yet for the indie film, but Pratt’s star could carry some bigger names into the production.
Before we get to The Black Belt though, Chris Pratt has a number of other works coming down the pike. The dude is just loaded with work these days as a leading part in multiple franchises. Jurassic World: Dominion is in post-production and headed for theaters sometime in 2022. It will be the actor’s third movie in the rebooted franchise.
And of course, he’s not done playing Peter Quill/ Star-Lord. Guardians of the Galaxy 3 should be out sometime in 2021 with James Gunn still at the helm. Plus, Star-Lord will also make an appearance in Thor: Love and Thunder.
But before all of that, Chris Pratt is also slated to star in an upcoming sci-fi flick, The Tomorrow War. In it, he plays a group of soldiers who’ve been brought from the past along various timelines to help fight off an alien race. Conceptually, it looks pretty cool and has a great cast even if little is still known about the overall plot. That film is also in post-production and has a set summer release date of July 23, 2021.
Chris Pratt getting back into the irreverent comedy game with The Black Belt is a welcome sign for the actor who made his bones on the aforementioned Parks and Recreation as the devil-may-care doofus Dwyer. He knew how to handle himself in delivery, but also a willingness to literally throw his body into any joke. The dude took a beating putting his body through the wringer to get a laugh. He’s spent years in the comic book/ action realm, but his roots are in bringing the funny. Getting back to that goofiness no doubt still plays for the actor. Look for more news on The Black Belt in the coming months.
