Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Valiant Entertainment and The Mummy producer Sean Daniel are teaming up to turn the Valiant Comic Shadowman into a live action feature. They’ve made a deal with J. Michael Straczynski to write the script.

Straczynski’s work ranges from writing/producing TV series that include Babylon 5 and Jeremiah, scripting films that include Thor, Ninja Assassin, Underworld Awakening and the Clint Eastwood-directed Changeling, and hatching comic books that include the Amazing Spider-Man and Superman: Earth One.

Shadowman has sold millions of comic books sold and spawned two multi-platform video games. The film’s logline: the forces of darkness are determined to claim New Orleans as their own, and Jack Boniface must accept the legacy he was born to uphold, in order to stop them. As Shadowman, Jack is about to become the only thing that stands between his city and an army of unspeakable monstrosities from beyond the night. He must pay a high price and master his new abilities before Master Darque brings down the wall between reality and the eldritch darkness of the Deadside.

The film’s producers are Jason Kothari, Dinesh Shamdasani, Sean Daniel and Jason Brown, with Straczynski the exec producer. The movie action comes as Valiant launches a new Shadowman comic book series to be released November 7, with Patrick Zircher (Thor, Captain America) and Justin Jordan (Strange Talent Of Luther Strode) at the helm.

“Shadowman is a character who lives in a unique world that mixes the modern world with that which is most ancient within us,” Straczynski. “The New Orleans vibe and history, and the struggle to find a balance with the personality within him, is a perfect dramatic vehicle. We’ve already finished the outline and there’s a lot of action, much of it unique to what Shadowman can do…but at the core of it, there’s a strong character, world and mythology that can be explored across multiple subsequent films. This is gonna be fun.”

Said Valiant CEO Jason Kothari: “Shadowman is the first in a large slate of film projects that we are developing and funding internally at Valiant. Between Sean’s evidenced track record and Joe’s creative genius, we are very enthused about building a potential franchise here.”

Valiant separately has Bloodshot at Sony, with Original Film and Matthew Vaughn producing with Valiant and a script by Kick-Ass 2: Balls To The Wall writer/director Jeff Wadlow.