Toby Kebbell has joined the cast of Vin Diesel’s superhero movie “Bloodshot,” TheWrap has exclusively learned.
Aside from Diesel, who is starring in the film, Kebbell joins the likes of Michael Sheen, Eiza González, Talulah Riley, Alex Hernandez and “Outlander’s” Sam Heughan for the project. Kebbell will play the villain role of Axe.
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 wells 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. 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.”
Kebbell is best known for his roles in films like “The Fantastic Four,” the rebooted “Planet of the Apes” franchise, “Kong: Skull Island,” “Warcraft,” and “RocknRolla.”
Kebbell is repped by ICM and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller & Gellman LLP .