In a wide-ranging interview with ComicBook.com, Valiant Entertainment CEO/CCO Dinesh Shamdasani talked about 2015’s year in comic books, but also looked forward to the future. A major next step in Valiant’s future? Films.
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As Valiant looks to build a film universe, they’ll start with Bloodshot, Harbinger, and an eventual crossover between the two for Harbinger Wars. The individual feel of each of their comic books, with different subgenres and very personal stories, will be reflected in the films.
“One of the things that [editor-in-chief] Warren [Simons] and [publisher] Fred [Pierce] and I talk about a lot is the fact that we don’t make superhero comic books. We don’t tell superhero stories. Our stories involve superheroes, but Ninjak is an espionage book. Bloodshot is a sci-fi action adventure,” Shamdasani told us. “We’re bringing that same point of view to the films.”
That means that at Valiant, they’re not comparing Bloodshot to movies like Iron Man or Man of Steel as much as they are to some classic techno-sci-fi films.
“The Bloodshot film has more in common with Terminator and Robocop and Total Recall, than it does superhero fare,” the CCO said. “[It has] a superhero at the center of it, but all of the other iconography, the tropes, the conventions the trappings of the film are in a different genre than I think people would expect from Bloodshot.”
They’ll try, no matter what, to keep things close to the vibe of the comic books, something they hope will drive fans of the book to the film, and fans of the film back to the books.
“If you’re a fan of the comicbook you’re definitely going to see that same tone and character up on the big screen. If you come to the big screen first, and then go to the comic book afterwards you’ll see that same tone resonated in that same character appear in the book as well,” Shamdasani said. Valiant has a direct stake in the films and “a big voice in the process,” so they’re “able to make sure that happens.
Bloodshot, the first Sony Pictures/Valiant movie collaborations, is due in 2017.
