Chris Pratt has signed on to produce and is attached to star in the coming-of-age independent comedy “The Black Belt.”
The film centers on a shy, unassuming teen boy on a quest for an expertise in karate and his unorthodox uncle who guides him along the way.
Pratt will produce the film through his banner Indivisible Productions, with producing partner Jon Schumacher, and Monarch Media and its principals Steve Barnett and Alan Powell. Monarch principal Vicky Patel will executive produce. Randall Green wrote the spec script. UTA Independent Film Group will oversee film sales and distribution.
Pratt became a worldwide star after headlining Disney-Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies as Star-Lord/Peter Quill and the “Jurassic World” films as dinosaur handler Owen Grady. He founded Indivisible Productions to tell stories across all platforms including film, television, and digital technologies.
Indivisible has a first-look deal with Universal Pictures, and the companies announced on Nov. 9 that Pratt and Wu Jing (“Wolf Warriors”) would star in Universal Pictures’ remake of “Saigon Bodyguards,” based on the Vietnamese action comedy of the same name. “Saigon Bodyguards” reunites Pratt with his “Avengers” collaborators the Russo Brothers.
The Indivisible TV slate includes “The Terminal List,” based on the best-selling novel by Jack Carr. Pratt will star and serve as executive producer, and Antoine Fuqua will direct and executive produce. The series is a co-production from Amazon Studios and Civic Center Media in association with MRC Television. Pratt is repped by UTA, Rise Management and attorneys at Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern.
Green wrote the Netflix movie “The Perfect Date,” starring Noah Centineo and Laura Marano, and is adapting Christopher McDougall’s “Running with Sherman,” also for Netflix, and worked on Warner Brothers’ upcoming “Space Jam: A New Legacy.” Previously, he was a writer on the Showtime series “Billions.” He is repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and attorneys at Hansen, Jacobson.
Barnett, Powell and Patel have several projects set through their Monarch Media banner, including the just announced collaboration with country music duo Florida Georgia Line, to produce a musical feature film with original country music. Additionally, they have military thriller “Havoc,” with South Korean filmmaker Byung-gil Jung attached to direct, and “Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell?,” a musical based on the WWII biography of a British soldier who was a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany, and are developing an English-language remake of the Spanish-language film “La Lista,” from director Alvaro Diaz Lorenzo.