When Valiant Entertainment announced its partnership with the Beijing based DMG Entertainment back in March, one had to wonder how that partnership would make itself known in the world of film. Deadline has the answer with more information on the companies’ long-term plans.
One of the questions I had was how Bloodshot would play into the new agreement. The property was optioned by Sony way back in 2012, not only predating the agreement with DMG, but also Valiant Entertainment’s reboot of the characters hit comic store shelves. The answer is that Sony will not only be home to Bloodshot, but four other films based on the Valiant books.
Bloodshot obviously will be the first film of this deal. The film will hit theaters sometime in 2017 with John Wick directors David Leitch and Chad Stahleski helming the Jeff Wadlow and Eric Heisserer script. Neal Moritz, who will be producing all five films, will be joined on this one by Toby Jaffe of Original Film and Valiant COO Dinesh Shamdasani. Matthew Vaughn and Jason Kothari will be executive producers.
Next will be Harbinger, adapted from the Valiant comic book focusing on the powerful telepaths and telekinetics of the Valiant Universe. The film will have a script by Heisserer and be produced by the same team.
Each film will have a sequel and before crossing over in a Harbinger Wars film.
Bloodshot and Harbinger are arguably the two most popular concepts Valiant Entertainment has, but I have to say that I’m a little disappointed by the lack of ambition in the film slate. Valiant’s IP farm is deep and plentiful, chock full of many other film worthy projects. I would have loved to see an Archer & Armstrong or Eternal Warrior film. Perhaps if these first five films are successful, we’ll get to explore the Valiant Universe a bit more.
