‘Game of Thrones’ Actor Johannes Haukur Johannesson Joins Vin Diesel’s ‘Bloodshot’ (Exclusive)

Toby Kebbell, Michael Sheen, Eiza González, and Sam Heughan will also appear in superhero movie

Johannes Haukur Johannesson Vin Diesel Bloodshot

Johannes Haukur Johannesson will join Vin Diesel in “Bloodshot” for Sony Pictures, TheWrap has exclusively learned.

Aside from Diesel, who is starring in the film, Johannesson, who played Lem in the sixth season of “Game of Thrones,” joins the likes of Toby Kebbell, Michael Sheen, Eiza González, Talulah Riley, Alex Hernandez and “Outlander’s” Sam Heughan for the project. Johannesson will play a villain in the film.

The studio will start principal photography in July on the first film to feature Diesel in a live-action superhero role. The film will also reunite Diesel with “Fast and Furious” mega-producer Neal Moritz. This is the first time that Moritz and Diesel have worked together outside of the “Fast and Furious” franchise. Dan Mintz, founder of DMG Entertainment is the executive producer. DMG recently acquired the entirety of Valiant Entertainment’s IP.

Dave Wilson, who is “Deadpool” director Tim Miller’s partner at Blur Studios, is attached to direct.

“Bloodshot” is about a mortally wounded soldier resurrected with cutting-edge nanotechnology, tasked with rounding up super-powered outcasts known as “harbingers.” The “Bloodshot” comic series was created by Kevin Van Hook, Don Perlin and Bob Layton in 1992.

Over its comic-book run, “Bloodshot” amassed 110 issues with more than 7.5 million copies sold via publisher Valiant. Valiant’s library represents an untapped well of intellectual property: Its bench has more than 2,000 superhero characters (with lifetime sales of more than 80 million copies), making it the third largest library of superheroes behind Marvel and DC — and the only one not currently owned by a major conglomerate. Valiant’s comic books are the best-reviewed books over the past five years; “Bloodshot” in particular has been honored with numerous critics’ awards.

According to insiders, Sony and Wilson plan to follow in the footsteps of the recent success of “Logan” and “Deadpool” with an R-rated take on the comic adaptation that will be tonally and aesthetically influenced by high-concept, sci-fi blockbusters of the late 1980s, including “Robocop,” “Terminator” and “Total Recall.”

“Bloodshot” marks a return to Diesel’s action genre roots, and the first time he has played a comic book superhero. He launched to international fame as a hard-hitting action star in “xXx” and “Pitch Black” before locking into “The Fast and the Furious” series. Diesel was also 2017’s top-grossing actor at the box office. Diesel topped the list with $1.6 billion in global ticketing receipts, thanks to the success of “xXx: The Return of Xander Cage” and “Fate of the Furious.”

Johannes will next be seen in the lead role of “Tau” in Albert Hughes’ “Alpha” which is the first film from Jeff Robinov’s Studio 8 shingle with Sony, to be released in theaters worldwide on August 17th. Johannes will then be seen in the series regular role of Steinar in the Netflix series “The Innocents,” which premieres on August 24. Along with recurring on “Game of Thrones,” Johannes’ recent credits include David Leitch’s “Atomic Blonde” opposite Charlize Theron and James McAvoy, and “The Last Kingdom” on Netflix.

Johannes is repped by Crimson Media, Independent Talent Group (UK), and attorney Lev Ginsburg.

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