News > Paramount, Ratner? to develop Valiant Comics' Harbinger

Written by Lucas C Haberstich

Comic books continue to provide Hollywood with fodder.  This week it's Paramount Pictures acquiring the rights to the Valiant Comics series Harbinger.  Not bad for a series that has been on hiatus for ten years.

A hit series when it was released in the early 1990s. Harbinger was created by Jim Shooter and told stories of humans with powers that can be unlocked by 'omega' harbingers.  The lead character was teenager Pete Stanchek who gathered a group of other powered youngsters to thwart the plans of evil industrialist and powerful psionic (mind powers!), Toyo Harada.

Paramount plans to turn the series into a live-action feature to be developed as a potential directing vehicle for Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand), possibly branded under the MTV Films banner.  Ouch.

With the success of NBC's Heroes and the X-Men films, teams of superpowered folk have become an easier sell and it is hard to argue against the entertainment value of superpowers, but could anyone out there who has read Harbinger vouch for its worthiness?

(Variety)