'Bloodshot,' 'Harbinger' Comics to Get Film Treatment From Sony, Valiant Entertainment (Exclusive)

The deal will see 'Fast and Furious' producers team with 'John Wick' directors for 2017's 'Bloodshot.'

A month after comic book publisher Valiant Entertainment revealed it had received a nine-figure investment in its movie and television development arm, the independent publisher is announcing a five-picture deal with Sony Pictures to bring two of its series, Bloodshot and Harbinger to the big screen starting in 2017.

Both Bloodshot and Harbinger will receive two features each before a fifth movie, Harbinger Wars, will bring both properties together, inspired by the Valiant comic book series crossover from 2013.

Bloodshot, targeted for a 2017 release, will be directed by the John Wick team of David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, working from a screenplay by Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2) and Eric Heisserer (The Thing remake, the upcoming Story of Your Life). Matthew Vaughn and Jason Kothari will act as executive producers.

For Harbinger, Heisserer will provide the script solo, while potential directors are being kept under wraps for now. All five movies will be produced by Valiant's Dinesh Shamdasani, along with Original Film's Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe (The Fast and Furious franchise, 21 Jump Street). Andrea Giannetti will oversee for Sony.

Harbinger, created by former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and David Lapham, is a next-generation X-Men-esque storyline about a group of superpowered beings on the run from the Harbinger Foundation, an organization run by a mysterious philanthropist Toyo Harada. Bloodshot, created by Kevin Van Hook, Don Perlin and Bob Layton, is a soldier brought back from the dead by a secret government agency, turned into an unstoppable killing machine with no memory powered by nanotechnology.

Both properties were among the first revived by Valiant Entertainment during the company's relaunch in 2012, leading to 2013's Harbinger Wars series by Joshua Dysart, Duane Swierczynski, Clayton Henry, Pere Perez and Clayton Crain.

In addition to Bloodshot and Harbinger, a number of other Valiant properties are in development, including odd-couple action comedy Archer & Armstrong and supernatural thriller Shadowman. The company received funding from DMG Entertainment in March for feature and television development, which teased development of properties for both the U.S. and China markets, including Chinese-language publishing and animation as well as movies.

AUGUST 01, 2017 11:24am PT by Graeme McMillan
Dave Bautista Reveals He's Working on New Comic Book Movie 'Eternal Warrior'

The 'Guardians of the Galaxy' actor says he's "really excited" to play the immortal hero central to Valiant's comic book mythology.

After two film installments of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Dave Bautista looks like he might move into another comic book universe, with a tweet teasing a previously unknown project featuring a character from Valiant Entertainment.

Responding to a fan question, Bautista — who plays Drax in the Marvel Studios franchise, with his next appearance due in next year's Avengers: Infinity War — said that he was "really excited" about Valiant's Eternal Warrior, adding, "We are currently working to get the script fan-worthy, and then we'll be full on from there."

Valiant declined to comment on the existence of an Eternal Warrior movie in development, but sources told Heat Vision that any such project would likely be related to the Archer & Armstrong movie currently being developed by Terry Rossio and director Ruben Fleischer. In Valiant's comic book mythology, the Eternal Warrior — aka Gilad Anni-Padda — is the brother of the "Armstrong" from the latter project; a third brother, Ivar Anni-Padda, features in the comic book series Timewalker.

The concept behind Eternal Warrior is a simple one: Resurrected using a mysterious artifact after a battlefield death millennia ago, Gilad has become functionally immortal with two unexpected side effects. Firstly, he can be killed — it's just that he will come back to life afterwards, no matter how painful a process that might be. Secondly, across the centuries, he falls into the service of the Earth itself, defending the Geomancer, a being chosen by the planet to act as its champion in times of need. Needless to say, neither being the Geomancer nor their defender is an entirely easy — or un-dangerous — proposition.

A potential Eternal Warrior project would add to a busy development slate for Valiant, which is currently developing Archer & Armstrong and Shadowman in-house to be shopped to studios, in addition to working on Harbinger and Bloodshot for Sony with Arrival's Eric Heisserier scripting both (Jared Leto is in talks to star in the latter project).

JANUARY 29, 2018 7:30am PT by Borys Kit
Comic Book Shake-Up: DMG Entertainment Acquires Valiant (Exclusive)

The industry's third largest superhero universe is looking to make a concerted push into film, television and other media platforms.

The industry's third largest superhero universe is looking to make a concerted push into film, television and other media platforms.

The battle for cinematic universes has taken a new turn as DMG Entertainment, the entertainment company involved with movies such as Looper and Chappaquiddick, has acquired Valiant Entertainment, the comic publisher that boasts the third-largest universe of superhero characters.

DMG, run by founder and CEO Dan Mintz, already had a 57 percent stake in Valiant, but made a strategic move for whole ownership in order to make a concerted push into film, television and other media platforms.

“This is about taking it to the next level,” says Mintz, a former filmmaker-turned-entrepreneur. “I am not looking on expanding from a publishing standpoint but from a motion picture standpoint.”

While not as massive compared with the Big Two, comic industry parlance for giants Marvel and DC, Valiant does have a robust library of 2,000 characters and publishes an award-winning line of comics from top writers and artists with titles such as X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Harbinger, Shadowman, Archer & Armstrong, and Ninjak.

Valiant was founded in 1989 with former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter as one of the founders and published a mix of original creations and characters licensed from another publisher. With some former Marvel writers and artists, the company mounted a formidable challenge to the Big Two, not least in part because it did what those companies did, namely, integrate its characters and storylines.

Valiant was bought by video game company Acclaim Entertainment in the mid-'90s, but by the early 2000s Acclaim’s fortunes soured. The rights to the characters were eventually picked up by entrepreneurs Dinesh Shamdasani and Jason Kothari and a resurrected company began publishing again in 2012.


Courtesy of Valiant Comics
Mintz says he is not looking to make wholesale changes — “The plan is not to go in there and take apart what’s working,” he says — but some reverberations are already occurring. Shamdasani, who acted as CEO, is transitioning out of the company.

The writers and artists who will stay to continue working the comics, without skipping a beat, Mintz insists, will now have their eyes on other platforms.

“You can expect more strong storytelling with a defined road to other platforms,” he says. “I’m also looking forward to bringing the writers close to the filmmaking process, which is something that is also important, and not keeping them siloed into the comic book area.”

Valiant already has plenty of Hollywood activity. Harbinger and Bloodshot are set up at Sony, with the latter title now having Vin Diesel attached to star. Quantum and Woody, a favorite of Mintz's (he likes buddy action comedies), is in development as a television show with the Russo Brothers' Getaway Productions, while Dr. Mirage is also set up as a TV series with CBS Studios and The CW Network.

For Mintz, Valiant occupies a valuable position in the IP field. Not only is it something with a global awareness, but it is also something that people pay for, month in and month out, and is in a “tipping point” place, making it ready for a next-level jump.

“This is something that is validated already and is on a road that has already been traveled by Marvel and DC,” he says.

The value of the deal was not disclosed and Mintz had no comment, other than to add, “You don’t step into something like this lightly. You don’t want a very expensive pet.”