The independent comic publisher, Valiant Entertainment, is continuing its move into movie production. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the big screen version of the action-comedy comic book Archer & Armstrong has found its writer and director.

Zombieland's Ruben Fleischer is on board to direct, with Terry Rossio attached as a writer. Rossio is known for his work on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and was recently named the leader of Legendary's MonsterVerse writers room. Joining Fleischer as producers are Jason Brown, The Mummy's Sean Daniel and Valiant CEO and CCO Dinesh Shamdasani. The film is being developed in-house before being shopped to studios.

Archer & Armstrong first appeared in 1992, created by former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, Wolverine: Weapon X writer-artist Barry Windsor-Smith and creator Bob Layton. The series follows the unlikely friendship between Armstrong, an immortal warrior who has become a drunken philosopher, and Archer, a teenage prodigy who has been trained since childhood to murder him.

News of Rossio and Fleischer's involvement in the project, follows the announcement of Dave Wilson – creative partner of Deadpool director Tim Miller – as director of the company's Bloodshot at Sony, working from a screenplay by Arrival's Eric Heisserer.

Valiant is also developing another buddy comedy project, Quantum & Woody, for television with Joe and Anthony Russo as executive producers. Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, who are currently working on Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp, will script the pilot.