TOM DeSANTO LOOKING TO ADAPT CITY OF HEROES – NEWSARAMA

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TOM DeSANTO LOOKING TO ADAPT CITY OF HEROES – NEWSARAMA

TOM DeSANTO LOOKING TO ADAPT CITY OF HEROES

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There
are pundits and analysts who say that the age of superhero movie
tie-ins are over, and coming up, Hollywood will turn its collective eye
towards video game properties when it looks to turn a property into a
movie.

Well, the future will hold what it will, but in the meantime, a project
that crosses both is getting a nod from producer Tom DeSanto.

According to Variety, after Transformers, DeSanto is turning his attention to NCsoft and Cryptic Studio’s City of Heroes
videogame, and is loking to turn the massively multiplayer online
role-playing game into a live-action feature film and then transition
it into television.

While the game (as well as its companion, City fo Villains)
has rocketed in popularity due to players ability to design and then
use their own superheroes in the fictional Paragon City, the
film/television version will follow the adventures of NCsoft/Cryptic’s
established characters who join together to fight off an alien
invasion.

According to the trade:

DeSanto sparked to the project because it offered “one-stop
shopping” for characters and plots. “You also haven’t seen a big
superheroes vs. aliens movie,” he said. “I see this as the next big
superhero franchise.”

DeSanto’s superhero cred is strong, as he was the executive producer on both X-Men and X2, and is a writer and producer on the upcoming Teen Titans: The Judas Contract straight to DVD animated feature based on the DC Comics story from The New Teen Titans.

Newsarama readers will recall that NCsoft/Cryptic was sued by Marvel
due to what the comic book publisher felt was the game publisher’s use
of characters that infringed upon established Marvel characters, as
well as the character design toolbox, which, Marvel alleged, allowed
players to create characters which were virtually identical to Marvel
characters.

The two settled the issue, and in September of last year announced that, together with Microsoft, the two companies were working together to develop a Marvel-based MMO.

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JIM SHOOTER WRITES NEW HARBINGER STORY FOR HC COLLECTION – NEWSARAMA

Well isn’t this interesting…

JIM SHOOTER WRITES NEW HARBINGER STORY FOR HC COLLECTION – NEWSARAMA

JIM SHOOTER WRITES NEW HARBINGER STORY FOR HC COLLECTION Press Release Comics legend and co-architect of the original Valiant Comics universe, Jim Shooter, has written a new Harbinger story for the upcoming Valiant hardcover collection, HARBINGER: THE BEGINNING. The deluxe hardcover by Valiant Entertainment collects the full Harbinger origin story (Harbinger #0-7) for the first time ever, and includes an all-new “Origin of Harada” story by Jim Shooter that features the first appearance of a new key Valiant character! Harbinger #0-7 has been digitally recolored and remastered using state-of-the-art computer techniques, and the all-new “Origin of Harada” story features art by former Valiant creator Bob Hall (Shadowman). Harbinger reinvented the superhero team genre and became one of the most successful comic series of the 1990s, selling over 5 million comic books. The classic story of Sting’s band of renegade teenagers with extraordinary powers of the mind and their battle against Japanese tycoon Toyo Harada took the comics industry by storm in 1992. Harbinger‘s first issue was named “Collectible of the Decade” by Wizard Magazine, appeared in the #1 position of Wizard Magazine’s Top Ten list for a then-record eight consecutive months, and in 2006 was named the 1990s “Comic Book of the Decade” by Sequart. It features Eisner Award-winner David Lapham’s (Stray Bullets) very first work as a talented teenager and one of Jim Shooter’s greatest stories ever. Creator Jim Shooter has had a long and storied career in the industry. He began his professional writing career at age 13, a world record, crafting some of the seminal Legion of Super Heroes stories for DC Comics. At the age of 28, he became Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics. During his nine-year tenure, he oversaw some of Marvel’s most influential creations and storylines, such as Spider-Man’s black costume and the creation of Venom, the X-Men’s Dark Phoenix Saga, and Frank Miller’s run on Wolverine and Daredevil. In 1990, Shooter co-founded Valiant Comics, where he co-wrote and co-created some of the most popular and critically acclaimed characters since Marvel’s heyday in the 1960s, including Harbinger, X-O Manowar, Shadowman, and Archer and Armstrong, among others. Jason Kothari, CEO of Valiant Entertainment said, “We are very excited to be collecting this classic story and giving readers the opportunity to experience it like never before, utilizing all that the latest in digital coloring has to offer and including Jim Shooter’s fascinating new story that expands the rich Valiant mythology.” HARBINGER: THE BEGINNING (JUN073932), published by Valiant Entertainment, is solicited in the June Previews (Volume XVII #6) and scheduled to arrive in comic book stores nationwide on August 29th, 2007. The book marks the milestone return of comics legend Jim Shooter and is a full-color 192 page hardcover with a suggested retail price of $24.95. About Valiant Entertainment Valiant Entertainment, Inc. is a character-based entertainment company that owns and manages some of the most popular comic characters ever created across all media, including feature films, television, video games, new media, publishing, and consumer products. Since its creation in 1990, Valiant has sold over 80 million comic books, 8 million video games, and became one of the three leading comic character-based companies globally. In addition, the “Valiant characters are often called the most important characters created since the Marvel revolution of the 1960s.” (Sequart, 2006) VALIANT™ characters include X-O MANOWAR®, BLOODSHOT®, HARBINGER™, ETERNAL WARRIOR™, DOCTOR MIRAGE™, NINJAK™, SHADOWMAN®, RAI™, and QUANTUM & WOODY™, among many others. Visit ValiantEntertainment.com for more information. Newsarama Note: As Newsarama readers will recall, Valiant Entertainment Inc. is not the original “Valiant” from the ’90s, but rather the Kothari/Shamdasani group which purchased the Acclaim assets “as is” at the company’s bankruptcy sale. As Newsarama also reported, ownership of the trademarks for the characters formerly published by Valiant has been applied for by a third party, Valiant Intellectual Properties, LLC.

ntellectual Properties, LLC.
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