A heap of movie industry news from Variety and Hollywood Reporter reveals that the comic book companies and film production companies are still going hot and heavy. Who would have thought that a form involving storytelling through pictures would be so well-suited for, hmm, another form involving storytelling through pictures? Grin.

Paramount Pictures has nabbed the rights to Valiant Comics series Harbinger. The series, created by Jim Shooter, follows a teenager who finds himself to be an “omega” harbinger — an exceedingly rare sort of person who not only can command awesome psychic powers but can also unlock those latent powers in regular harbingers. The only other known “omega” harbinger is a sort of evil political industrialist who wants to make the world over and is rather unhappy about not being the only “omega” harbinger around. Brett Ratner is set to direct.

Also, Dark Horse Entertainment has signed a 3-year worldwide production and distribution agreement with Universal Pictures. Universal, essentially, has dibs on all of Dark Horse’s characters and properties. Universal is already producing and distributing a Dark Horse character-based project this summer; Hellboy II : The Golden Army, directed by Guillermo del Toro, is set to hit theaters on July 11th.

Warner has quickly bought-up the rights to the popular comic Bone by Jeff Smith, too.

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