Brett Ratner to Direct Harbinger Movie

If Paramount Pictures gets their way, Brett Ratner, the much derided director of “X-Men: The Last Stand” and the “Rush Hour” movies, will be directing the live-action adaptation of the Valiant Comic series “Harbinger” for them. Yes, a movie based on the Valiant comics. If you read comics at all in the ’90s, then you know Valiant very well; Jim Shooter, the man at the top, orchestrated some of the best mega-crossovers in comics history while he was in charge. (Ol Jim tended to lose jobs easily, let’s just say.) The company was well known for breathing new life into old, forgotten comic book characters.

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Created by Jim Shooter, the “Harbinger” comicbook series became a hit when published in the 1990s. Harbingers are humans with powers that can be unlocked by “omega” harbingers. Teenager Pete Stanchek finds himself on a collision course with an older “omega” who used his gifts to become an evil industrialist.

Paramount and Ratner is looking at “Harbinger” as a potential franchise. Could work, if done right. Although he probably wouldn’t make anything on the level of, say Bryan Singer, Ratner is not an altogether bad director. Mediocre, sure, but he’s also competent.

In fact, I’m surprised the Valiant comics haven’t been turned into movies before now. There are a lot there to work with, including Shadowman, Man-o-War, Turok, and if they really want to go all out, Solar, Man of the Atom would rock as a live-action movie. And oh yeah, the Eternal Warrior would be cool, but Archer and Armstrong would also make for a fantastic action-adventure/buddy franchise.