Chris Pratt has spent most of the last decade in the once-unlikely position as one of Hollywood’s biggest breakout stars. However, despite a budding big-budget backlog, the A-lister is planning his return to the medium on which he got his start: television.
Pratt has signed on for a television project titled The Terminal List, on which he’ll serve as headlining star and executive producer. The project, which adapts the conspiracy thriller novel of the same name by Jack Carr, will see Pratt joined behind the camera by Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer films, Training Day), who is set to direct and executive-produce the pilot. The gig facilitates a reunion, due to Pratt’s co-starring role in Fuqua’s 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven. While the key creative ducks are in their proverbial row, the project – envisioned as a multi-season series – has yet to acquire a network or streaming platform. Propped up by Pratt, Fuqua and MRC Television, said project is currently in the process of being shopped around.
The Terminal List follows Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander James Reece (Pratt’s starring role), who, during a crucial op on his last deployment, loses his entire platoon in a devastating ambush. However, upon his return home, Reece discovers that the authors of said ambush were not enemy forces, but, rather, a stateside conspiracy that apparently goes to the highest of levels. Consequently, with no family left and nothing to lose, Reece engages in a one-man war with a shadowy bureaucratic cabal.
David Digilio has been tapped to write The Terminal List script and serve as executive producer, bringing a sporadic-but-intriguing small screen CV with work on CBS All Access’s recently-cancelled Strange Angel, 2014 John Malkovich-headlined NBC pirate series Crossbones and short-lived 2007 ABC series Traveler. Digilio’s script will, of course, adapt 2018’s The Terminal List, the first in the thriller novel series by Jack Carr, a former Navy SEAL who’s brought a real-life perspective to the literary franchise. The author followed-up the first book with 2019 sequel True Believer and the April-2020-scheduled third offering, Savage Son.
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Star Chris Pratt, once a small-screen standard on shows like The WB’s Everwood and Fox’s The O.C., achieved acclaim from a six-year run on NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, after which he was propelled to superstardom in Marvel Studios’ 2014 intergalactic ensemble, Guardians of the Galaxy, which yielded a successful sequel (with a third film in the works), crossover appearances in Marvel’s industry-dominating third and fourth Avengers films, not to mention – amongst other things – a starring role in the franchise-reviving Jurassic World films (also with a third film in the works) and a lead voice role in The Lego Movie animated films. His 2021 docket is scheduled to see the releases of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Jurassic World 3, and he’s also attached to long-delayed adventure comedy Cowboy Ninja Viking. He’ll next be heard in a voice role for Pixar’s March-scheduled feature, Onward, and seen in the Christmas Day-scheduled sci-fi actioner, The Tomorrow War.
The Terminal List is still in early development and has yet to set a release date. The project will manifest as a production of by MRC Television and Civic Center Media, both of which are behind The Outsider, HBO’s currently-running acclaimed Stephen King novel television series adaptation.
Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.