Valiant's HARBINGER from Paramount (TBD) 1 1

[Bosco685]

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After helping out with the early stages of Marvel Studios meteoric run, it looks like Paramount Pictures is getting back into the superhero business as they've scooped up the Valiant Entertainment adaptation Harbinger from Sony Pictures. But this move comes with the unfortunate consequence of jeopardizing Valiant's plans for a shared cinematic universe, because the Vin Diesel film Bloodshot is remaining at Sony. The creative team behind Harbinger is transferring over to Paramount, with filmmaker Justin Tipping, co-writer Joshua Beirne-Golden, and producer Neal Moritz still attached to the movie, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter.

 

Harbinger is one of Valiant's best known properties and is arguably the publisher's premiere superhero team. So even though Bloodshot won't be able to crossover and the Harbinger Wars film is likely off the table, there are still plenty of characters that fans will like to see in the movie.

 

[Bosco685]

Paramount Picks Up Comic Book Movie 'Harbinger' From Sony (Exclusive)

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Harbinger, the adaptation of a superhero comic published by Valiant Entertainment, has been scooped up by Paramount from its initial home, Sony Entertainment.

 

Making the crosstown segue are also filmmaker Justin Tipping and the -script by Tipping and Joshua Beirne-Golden working off an original draft by Eric Heisserer (Arrival). Also remaining involved is producer Neal Moritz, who was key in the transfer and who moved his first-look deal from Sony to Paramount in 2018. Moritz will produce with Toby Jaffe and Valiant Comics' Dan Mintz.

 

Harbinger tells the story of a group of superpowered teens who rebel against the corporation that tried to harness their abilities for its own ends.

 

The project was to have shot this summer or fall, and had actors Dylan O’Brien and Noah Centineo circling, but is no longer on the fast-track, say sources. The plan is to have Harbinger undergo a short development process at Paramount before moving forward with the same creative team.

 

The move has several potential repercussions.

 

First, Valiant is a notable publisher of comics not gobbled up by a media corporation but now owned by DMG Entertainment, which fully acquired the comic publisher in January 2018 after having an initial stake. It stands apart from other indie companies such as Image or Boom! in that it maintains and continually expands a cohesive narrative across its titles, like Marvel and DC.

 

With designs of building its own cinematic universe — a VCU, if one will — the company was already hitching its wagon to Sony, where it set up several of its titles, including Bloodshot. The latter is Valiant’s first produced movie and stars Vin Diesel. Sony is hoping it launches a franchise when it opens Feb. 21, 2020.

 

Harbinger was to have been the second title to go, also a potential franchise-starter, and Marvel Studios-like, was to have connected with Bloodshot for a cinematic universe, and even led to a crossover event titled Harbinger Wars after the 2013 comic book series of the same name.

 

That crossover is now unlikely to happen, nor is a VCU with those characters. With the Paramount deal, Valiant now finds itself in the situation similar to 1990s Marvel, with licensed characters at more than one studio. And it could, down the line, even find itself in a similar scenario of a Spider-Man-style divorce battle.

 

Project insiders say, however, that Bloodshot is less integral to the VCU than, say, Spider-Man, with the company focused on keeping together its core characters such as X-O Manowar, Eternal Warrior and Archer & Armstrong, whose rights it retains.

 

Sources say the initial deals with Sony were made by a set of entrepreneurs who took over Valiant in 2012, relaunching the publisher for the 21st century. Mintz, the CEO of DMG who now runs Valiant, hopes to keep most of characters together as he builds a cinematic universe. Mintz is trying to position the company as a content engine ready to find a proper partner in the current shakeup of media companies, which are looking to join the streaming wars and find their place in the new Hollywood landscape where those with known and popular intellectual property have an upper hand.

 

The move also robs Sony of a potential movie franchise as it seeks to build its armory with content. With the terms of the deal undisclosed, it’s unclear what kinds of loss, if any, Sony could feel. The company has made building its Spider-Man brand its top priority and is working on furthering Ghostbusters and Jumanji, among other franchises. It clearly figures it can weather letting Harbinger go.

Wow!

[Buzzetta]

3 hours ago, Bosco685 said:

Paramount Picks Up Comic Book Movie 'Harbinger' From Sony (Exclusive)

Wow!

I am indifferent toward this... I don't know what to say. 

You know I love the characters so it has nothing to do with the intellectual property.   I would have thought though that the mess involving Marvel and splitting up it's characters over the past 25 years would have taught Valiant a valuable lesson in keeping things together.  

I see Bloodshot as an integral character because I worry (I am imagining a Quicksilver scenario at best) that the rights to Rai could be tied up with that.  If that is the case then they are robbing themselves of a major component of the Valiant Universe.   Without Magnus, as that character is tied to Dreamworks (right?) I see the core of the "future" Valiant Universe tied with Rai as they are showing in the current comics. 

 

[Bosco685]

33 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

I am indifferent toward this... I don't know what to say. 

You know I love the characters so it has nothing to do with the intellectual property.   I would have thought though that the mess involving Marvel and splitting up it's characters over the past 25 years would have taught Valiant a valuable lesson in keeping things together.  

I see Bloodshot as an integral character because I worry (I am imagining a Quicksilver scenario at best) that the rights to Rai could be tied up with that.  If that is the case then they are robbing themselves of a major component of the Valiant Universe.   Without Magnus, as that character is tied to Dreamworks (right?) I see the core of the "future" Valiant Universe tied with Rai as they are showing in the current comics. 

Bingo!

Learning from the MCU the good and the bad, having characters farmed out to other studios brought its own challenges. I just do not get what the thinking was here, other than there may be internal Sony challenges we are not seeing.

But this film has been talked about since 2015, and even at one point was coming out ahead of Bloodshot. This is befuddling.  

[kimik]

The only character that matters is X-O. When are they going to move on that? 

[Gatsby77]

Huh.

I'd rather see Paramount make Valiant films than Sony.

But Harbinger is among the least interesting set of Valiant characters -- at this point, it will look to the general public like another anonymous b-list X-Men team, a la those shown in Chronicle, or Heroes, or Gifted, etc.

Done right, Bloodshot could do for Vin Diesel what John Wick did for Keanu -- although I swear the film writes itself -- it looks exactly like Vin's prior film "A Man Apart" combined with last year's "Upgrade."

And I *love* the idea of Rai as the lynchpin of a Paramount shared Valiant universe (after all, my username on the Valiant boards is "Rai-fan") -- but why would VEI own the film rights to Rai and not Dreamworks, given that Rai first appeared in a Magnus comic?

If Dreamworks only owns the elements of Magnus that originated in the Gold Key books, does that mean that VEI owns the VH1 elements of Magnus, including the Malev War, Rai, and the Future Force?

[valiantman]

15 minutes ago, Gatsby77 said:

But Harbinger is among the least interesting set of Valiant characters -- at this point, it will look to the general public like another anonymous b-list X-Men team, a la those shown in Chronicle, or Heroes, or Gifted, etc.

That's true.  Harbinger (1992) was quite a bit earlier than Chronicle (2012), Heroes (2006), and Gifted (2017), but the general public will probably be harsh since they won't know that.

I'd love the idea of a Valiant Cinematic Universe where something like Unity (1992) could be done, but there's a good argument to be made that we already have it... since it was called Infinity War & Endgame, the culmination of 20+ Marvel movies in one final battle for the universe.  Obviously, Marvel had Infinity Gauntlet in 1991, so they were first (like X-Men)... and Valiant did a similar "Infinity War / Endgame" type of story in 1992 with 8 different crossover Valiant Universe titles with 18 chapters of Unity crossover storyline, time travel, hero team-ups, picking sides, other dimensions/realms, never-before-seen weapons, the villain who just wants to "set things right" for the universe, etc., and the biggest bad was a woman in sheer clothing!  Imagine the backlash today. 

There's still lots of concepts and "twists" to mine from the Valiant universe... possibly even something different for the big screen, but the dream of a Valiant Cinematic Universe was always going to be a tough climb... X-O Manowar is easily the "most A-list" concept and easily the most expensive to do correctly, so any Valiant movie before X-O was always going to be a test... a stepping stone... and it's possible that no studio would ever get all the way to the top... X-O Manowar.   (Although, as far as words go... "Paramount" does sound like the right studio name to make it to the top of the mountain.) 

[Buzzetta]

44 minutes ago, Gatsby77 said:

Huh.

I'd rather see Paramount make Valiant films than Sony.

But Harbinger is among the least interesting set of Valiant characters -- at this point, it will look to the general public like another anonymous b-list X-Men team, a la those shown in Chronicle, or Heroes, or Gifted, etc.

Done right, Bloodshot could do for Vin Diesel what John Wick did for Keanu -- although I swear the film writes itself -- it looks exactly like Vin's prior film "A Man Apart" combined with last year's "Upgrade."

And I *love* the idea of Rai as the lynchpin of a Paramount shared Valiant universe (after all, my username on the Valiant boards is "Rai-fan") -- but why would VEI own the film rights to Rai and not Dreamworks, given that Rai first appeared in a Magnus comic?

If Dreamworks only owns the elements of Magnus that originated in the Gold Key books, does that mean that VEI owns the VH1 elements of Magnus, including the Malev War, Rai, and the Future Force?

The Dreamworks characters were purchased from Gold Key and include Magnus, Turok and Solar.  @Bosco685 is also a Valiant fan and feel free to correct me if I am wrong.  When Valiant came together they leased the characters from Gold Key but any characters made would be owned by Valiant.  This is why VEI took the Rai property when Valiant relaunched.  

It is sort of like the Transformers Comic in the 80's or Rom. Hasbro retained the rights to Transformers but Marvel retained the rights to Circuit Breaker and the term Space Knights. 

[Buzzetta]

1 hour ago, kimik said:

The only character that matters is X-O. When are they going to move on that? 

Valiant properties are actually valuable if handled the right way. 

The Eternal Warrior is essentially a man out of time, Captain America, crossed with Highlander. 

[Gatsby77]

40 minutes ago, valiantman said:

X-O Manowar is easily the "most A-list" concept and easily the most expensive to do correctly, so any Valiant movie before X-O was always going to be a test... a stepping stone... and it's possible that no studio would ever get all the way to the top... X-O Manowar.   (Although, as far as words go... "Paramount" does sound like the right studio name to make it to the top of the mountain.) 

Agree.

But re. X-O, isn't Ax on-deck to appear in the Bloodshot film by the same actor who played the last Dr. Doom?

I guess I've always associated Ax with X-O, since the first Valiants I read were X-O # 5-6, when he steals the X-O (or equivalent) armor and battles Aric. Memory's hazy, as it's been 25+ years.

Point is, my assumption has been that part of the forthcoming Bloodshot film's plot would show Ax stealing some X-O-style armor, leading to a final battle between Harbinger-in-machine vs. ex-mob-guy-who-can-control machines.

Edited September 12, 2019 by Gatsby77

[Unstoppablejayd]

2 hours ago, Buzzetta said:

I am indifferent toward this... I don't know what to say. 

You know I love the characters so it has nothing to do with the intellectual property.   I would have thought though that the mess involving Marvel and splitting up it's characters over the past 25 years would have taught Valiant a valuable lesson in keeping things together.  

I see Bloodshot as an integral character because I worry (I am imagining a Quicksilver scenario at best) that the rights to Rai could be tied up with that.  If that is the case then they are robbing themselves of a major component of the Valiant Universe.   Without Magnus, as that character is tied to Dreamworks (right?) I see the core of the "future" Valiant Universe tied with Rai as they are showing in the current comics. 

 

Isn't Axe the bad guy in Bloodshot?? How will that work?

[Gatsby77]

2 minutes ago, Unstoppablejayd said:

Isn't Axe the bad guy in Bloodshot?? How will that work?

Oh - right.

Ax first appeared in Harbinger 3, so is presumably owned by Paramount.

Huh.

[Bosco685]

42 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

The Dreamworks characters were purchased from Gold Key and include Magnus, Turok and Solar.  @Bosco685 is also a Valiant fan and feel free to correct me if I am wrong.  When Valiant came together they leased the characters from Gold Key but any characters made would be owned by Valiant.  This is why VEI took the Rai property when Valiant relaunched.  

It is sort of like the Transformers Comic in the 80's or Rom. Hasbro retained the rights to Transformers but Marvel retained the rights to Circuit Breaker and the term Space Knights. 

The last I saw of anything associated with film or TV rights was Turok.

EXCLUSIVE: Adam Beach To Star In Live Action Turok Movie

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Maybe the most important one of all, grinned "Flags of our Fathers" star Adam Beach, revealing exclusively to MTV News his plans to star in a live-action “Turok” movie.

 

“We just finished the animated movie and now we’re going into the feature film movie [which should lens] hopefully in a couple years. We’re about to set up meetings to develop a -script and put it out there,” Beach enthused. “I’ll have to beef up, and be a good guy, and save the world!”

 

Turok, of course, has his origins in comic books but is no doubt much more widely known today as the star of several popular video games. Although many claim that the franchise has recently “nuked the fridge,” 1997’s “Turok: Dinosaur Hunter” is often credited as being one of the earliest blockbuster first person shooters for the N64, helping to usher in a whole new era in gaming.

 

[Bosco685]

I had never heard there was a Turok animated film which was direct to video.

The opening credits notes Gold Key Productions.

[Gatsby77]

3 minutes ago, Bosco685 said:

I had never heard there was a Turok animated film which was direct to video.

The opening credits notes Gold Key Productions.

Written by Tony Bedard.

The creator of ... Psi-Lords!

[WolverineX]

Bummer the Valiant Universe isn't under the same Studio. However, I am very excited for a Harbinger movie.

[Legion HQ]

3 hours ago, Gatsby77 said:

Written by Tony Bedard.

The creator of ... Psi-Lords!

Actually, I associate Bedard with Crossgen's Negation series, which I thought was absolutely brilliant. I'm still bitter that Crossgen pulled the plug before the Negation Wars series was completed!

Edited September 12, 2019 by Legion HQ

[Gatsby77]

Another note - if it's Paramount, wonder if they'll try to give Tom Cruise a role.

He's their biggest star, and they've backed the Mission Impossible films, Jack Reacher films, Top Gun 2, and Cruise's forthcoming Luna Park.

Just saying...he could be an interesting Harada.

[Bosco685]

14 minutes ago, Gatsby77 said:

Another note - if it's Paramount, wonder if they'll try to give Tom Cruise a role.

He's their biggest star, and they've backed the Mission Impossible films, Jack Reacher films, Top Gun 2, and Cruise's forthcoming Luna Park.

Just saying...he could be an interesting Harada.

I never considered that, though this is a new studio driving this. Very interesting.

[Buzzetta]

7 hours ago, Bosco685 said:

I had never heard there was a Turok animated film which was direct to video.

 

The opening credits notes Gold Key Productions.

Found it... 

Classic Media bought the Gold Key and Dell libraries back in the early 2000's

Dreamworks bought Classics Media in 2012

Dreamworks Animation SKG currently owns Turok, Magnus, Solar, and Dr Spektor

https://www.businessinsider.com/dreamworks-will-purchase-classic-media-for-155-million-2012-7