Keeping his schedule as packed as possible, Chris Pratt has added indie comedy Black Belt to his slate. Deadline reports Pratt will produce and star in the film about a young boy with dreams of becoming a karate master. To do it, he’ll need help from his unorthodox uncle, which we can assume will be played by Pratt. No director is attached yet, but the script is by Randall Green, who recently wrote the Netflix rom-com The Perfect Date.
Daisy Ridley is swimming as far away from Star Wars as she can, quite literally in the case of her new project, Young Woman and the Sea. According to Deadline, Ridley will star as long-distance swimmer Trudy Ederle, an Olympian and world-record holder who became the first woman to ever swim across the English Channel. Her feats earned her the nickname “Queen of the Waves.” Ederle overcame the loss of her hearing to accomplish the feat, which had only been done by five men prior to when she completed the swim in 1926. The film is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who brought it to Disney after it had been sitting idle at Paramount for years. He’s set the Pirates of the Caribbean 5 duo of director Joachim Rønning and writer Jeff Nathanson to adapt Glenn Stout’s book for streaming on Disney+.
