Valiant's Harbinger Movie Taps The Maze Runner Director Wes Ball
The Maze Runner director Wes Ball is attached to bring Harbinger to the big screen for Valiant Comics and Paramount Pictures. As first reported by Deadline, the filmmaker behind Fox's trilogy of young adult novel adaptations is developing the first cinematic take on the Jim Shooter and David Lapham co-created comic book series about psionically-powered teens called "Harbingers." Leading a resistance of hero Renegades is the powerful Psiot Peter Stanchek, a.k.a. Sting, who battles the Omega-level Harbinger Toyo Harada and his Harbinger Foundation.
Andrew Lanham (Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) scripted the most recent version of Harbinger, which reportedly attached indie director Justin Tipping when the project was set up at Sony Pictures in 2018. Sony Pictures Releasing, behind the Vin Diesel-starring Valiant Comics adaptation Bloodshot, was reportedly developing crossover movie Harbinger Wars.
In 2019, Harbinger hopped over to Paramount with Neal H. Moritz (the Fast & Furious saga, Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise) producing as part of a first-look deal that spawned Sonic and the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Ball's Oddball Entertainment (Phoenix Forgotten, the announced Mouse Guard) will produce with Moritz's Original Film. Dan Mintz (Bloodshot) produces for Valiant Entertainment, which at one time was developing a project around Faith Herbert, a.k.a. Zephyr, a member of the Harbinger Renegades.
According to Deadline, Ball's Maze Runner star Dylan O'Brien and Black Adam actor Noah Centineo were circling Harbinger when the adaptation was at Sony. Ball is also developing a rebooted Planet of the Apes at Disney.
Reads the synopsis for Valiant's Harbinger comic book, "Super-powered teenager Peter Stanchek is on a dangerous path. Skipping across the country in a desperate attempt to stay one step ahead of the authorities, Peter is quickly realizing that he's a psionically-charged 'harbinger' with the potential to reshape the course of human history. But Peter's plight has not gone unnoticed. Respected philanthropist and fellow harbinger Toyo Harada is about to offer Peter the chance at the things for which the boy has always longed — family, inner peace, self-control — and induct him into the sprawling, secret network of conspiracy and subversion known as the Harbinger Foundation. Now Peter begins his long road towards a destiny that will shake the very foundations of the Valiant Universe. His first lesson? All power comes with a price."