Fandom favorite Chris Pratt is taking on another iconic animated character! Just over a month since the Parks and Recreation, Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World star was announced as the lead for Nintendo and Illumination’s Super Mario movie, Pratt has been tapped to voice Jim Davis’ famous feline Garfield in a new animated feature from Alcon Entertainment (Blade Runner 2049, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Pete the Cat).
From The Emperor’s New Groove duo of director Mark Dindal (Chicken Little) and Oscar-nominated screenwriter David Reynolds (Finding Nemo), the latest adaptation of the classic comic strip has been picked up for worldwide release by Sony Pictures (excluding China) and will feature animation produced by DNEG (Ron’s Gone Wrong).
Alcon acquired the rights to Garfield from Davis, who will executive produce the feature with Bridget McMeel for Amuse and Craig Sost. John Cohen and Steven P. Wegner are producing alongside Alcon’s Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson and DNEG’s CEO Namit Malhotra and President Tom Jacomb.
Garfield made its funny pages debut in 1978, chronicling the misadventures of the lazy, lasagna-loving orange tabby cat, his hapless human Jon Arbuckle and vacuous doggie housemate Odie — along with many other characters introduced over the years — in 41 newspapers. The comic currently holds the record for the most widely syndicated strip in the world. Davis’ creation previously hit the big screen voiced by Bill Murray in 20th Century’s hybrid flicks Garfield (2004) and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties (2006).
Pratt won the Behind the Voice Actor Award for Best Male Lead Vocal Performance in Feature Film for his role as Emmet in The LEGO Movie (2014), as well as sharing the People’s Choice award for Best Vocal Ensemble and nomination for the juried Best Vocal Ensemble honor. He shared both Ensemble wins for reprising the character in the LEGO Dimensions video game the next year. Pratt also provided the voice for Barley Lightfoot in Pixar’s Onward (2020) and Cooper in Ben 10: Ultimate Alien.
Pratt was most recently seen in the sci-fi drama The Tomorrow War. In addition to the untitled animated Mario movie, his upcoming projects include Jurassic World: Dominion, Thor: Love and Thunder, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Cowboy Ninja Viking.
[Source: The Hollywood Reporter]
