There's been a bit of a shake-up with Sony's Bloodshot movie. The Valiant Comics adaptation has been in the works for some time now and just recently kicked off production, as announced by star Vin Diesel on Instagram. Now, just as filming has gotten underway, one of the core cast members, Michael Sheen, has been forced to exit the project. He's set to be replaced by Guy Pearce, who entered the situation in a hurry as the studio was in need of a replacement rather quickly.

Michael Sheen, according to a new report, was forced to depart the project over scheduling conflicts. That left room for Sony to enter into negotiations with Guy Pearce, who is in talks to join the Bloodshot ensemble currently. Pearce is no stranger to comic book movies, having starred in Shane Black's Iron Man 3. He's also a well-regarded actor with years of experience under his belt, having worked quite a bit on big action movies like Prometheus and, to a lesser extent, something like Lockout. His experience should allow him to be able to step into the role with less prep time and be able to make it work.

If the deal closes, Guy Pearce will be playing Dr. Emil Harting, who has an important role to play in the movie. He joins a cast thet includes Fast and the Furious star Vin Diesel in the title role, alongside Toby Kebbell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Sam Heughan (Outlander), Eiza Gonzalez (Baby Driver), Talulah Riley (Westworld), Johannes Haukur Johannesson (Game of Thrones), Lamorne Morris (Game Night) and Alex Hernandez (Unreal). Bloodshot is the first in a potential series of Valiant Comics adaptations that will exist in an interconnected cinematic universe. At least, that's the optimistic hope.

Bloodshot centers on a mortally wounded soldier by the name of Angelo Mortalli who is resurrected via the use of cutting-edge nanotechnology. Guy Pearce's character Dr. Emil Harting is responsible for creating this technology. The titular anti-hero is tasked with rounding up other similar superpowered outcasts who are called Harbingers. The character was created by Kevin Van Hook, Don Perlin and Bob Layton. He was first introduced in 1992 and has been going strong in the pages of Valiant Comics ever since. The hope is that this could eventually lead to a Harbinger Wars movie at Sony. The potential to have yet another major franchise under his belt is part of what attracted Vin Diesel to the project.

Dave Wilson, partner to Deadpool director Tim Miller at Blur Studio, is directing Bloodshot. Eric Heisserer, who also wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-nominated Arrival, penned the adaptation. The movie doesn't yet have a release date, but with the movie filming currently, we should expect to see it sometime in late 2019 or early 2020. This news comes to us courtesy of Variety. You can also check out Vin Diesel's video announcing the start of production for yourself below.