This feels like it could be important, or be nothing at all, depending on how it all works out:
The Valiant Entertainment Group has taken back the movie rights to a film based on its Harbinger character and plans to develop the film in-house. It appears that Valiant, at the urging of Chairman Peter Cuneo, who was a former CEO of Marvel, is attempting to follow the Marvel Studios’ method of developing its own properties for the big screen.
Apparently, Paramount – which had been developing the movie – got cold feet at the prospect of potential legal action over ownership and credit for the characters a la Watchmen, considering creator Jim Shooter’s estranged relationship with Valiant as a whole. Part of me wonders whether there’s a there there; I’d always just assumed that Valiant owned the characters outright, but I haven’t seen any of the contracts, obviously…
Nonetheless, taking control of its own movies has worked out well for Marvel, so there’s every possibility that it could also do so for Valiant, especially considering the former Marvel staff working there (If nothing else, the current Valiant line of comics is far more exciting/interesting than I suspected it would be, and I speak as one who has no nostalgic attachment to the original comics at all). It all depends on who they get to develop the movies, and whether the audience will still be willing to entertain another superhero universe by the time their features get released.
