While Sony Pictures Entertainment may have a pair of Spider-Man pics swinging into theaters this year and next, a lesser-known hero is also destined for the big screen in Sony's Bloodshot. Playing the title superhero is the one and only Vin Diesel, who announced the start of the film's production via an Instagram video earlier today. Few details are currently available for the film, but we know that Diesel & Co., including video game VFX whiz/director Dave Wilson (The Division, Avengers: Age of Ultron) making his feature directorial debut, will be in the Cape Town, South Africa area for the start of production. Bloodshot is aiming for a February 21, 2020 release date.

Originally created by Kevin VanHook, Don Perlin and Bob Layton and published by Valiant Comics in 1992, Bloodshot is the story of Angelo Mortalli, a former soldier with the powers of regeneration and shapeshifting, and the ability to interface directly with technology thanks to a bloodstream full of nano-computers. As these sorts of origin stories usually go, his memory has been repeatedly wiped, leading him to go on a quest for vengeance against those who manipulated him to discover who he truly is. The title got a new volume back in 2012 with Valiant Comics' relaunch, followed by "Bloodshot: Reborn" in 2015. The movie's script was written by Oscar-nominated Eric Heisserer, though we're not sure at the moment just which issues and arcs the movie intends to pull from.

Check out Diesel's early-morning message announcing the production start of Bloodshot below, via his Instagram page:

Are you excited to see more from Diesel and Bloodshot? We're at least curious about the tone of this thing. When last we reported, it was intended as an R-rated comic book movie, much like Fox's Marvel counterpart Deadpool, but one “that will be tonally and aesthetically influenced by high-concept sci-fi blockbusters of the late 80s.” Now that production is rolling, we expect to see a taste of that tone and aesthetic in the months ahead.

Currently, no big releases are scheduled for 2/21/2020, but just the weekend before on Valentine's Day are three big untitled films: DC's got one, Disney's got a live-action movie slotted, and even Blumhouse has the date locked down. And just a week before that, there's currently untitled Warner Bros. event film along with a Peter Rabbit sequel. Busy month. We expect some schedule shifting to occur in the year-plus between now and then. It just remains to see who will blink first.