DC. Marvel. Industry giants, yet not the only names in comics. Not by a long shot.

Valiant is one such company that has been around for quite a while, founded in 1989 by former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and Steven Massarsky. Like the two industry leaders, we have the Valiant Universe including such titles as X-O Manowar, Harbinger, and Shadowman. Valiant already has a five-picture deal with Sony to bring the Valiant Universe to life, including movie versions of Bloodshot and Harbinger, leading to an Avengers style event in Harbinger Wars. 

Heat Vision has learned that now that Valiant is developing Archer & Armstrong in house before being shopped around to studios. The project certainly won’t be a hard sell, considering the talent that just joined the film.

Archer & Armstrong has already secured Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) to direct a script from Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise). Rossio is also currently involved in the writer’s room for the MonsterVerse featuring Godzilla and Kong. The project is said to be fast-tracked, likely taking Fleischer out of the running for the directing gig on Suicide Squad 2.

Archer & Armstrong follows the friendship of the title characters and their comedic adventures. Armstrong is an immortal warrior turned drunken self-styled philosopher while Archer is a teenage prodigy, trained to murder Armstrong. Strange bedfellows, indeed. It was created in 1992 by Shooter, Bob Layton, and Wolverine: Weapon X writer/artist Barry Windsor-Smith. Sounds like a fun, mismatched buddy comedy to me! Casting for this one could get very interesting…

Valiant is attracting quite the talent to its projects. Eric Heisserer, writer of Arrival, is working on Bloodshot for Sony while the Joe and Anthony Russo (The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War) are developing Quantum & Woody as a television series. Of course, all this could come crashing down if Valiant’s first project isn’t at least a modest success. Many have tried to adapt lesser-known comics and failed. In this case, they can’t all be Marvel Studios.

Are you excited for more comic book adaptions separate from Marvel and DC? Because it looks like what Valiant is bringing to the table is a completely different type of comic book movie.

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SOURCE: Heat Vision (The Hollywood Reporter)