From DC’s Clown Prince of Crime to a bloodthirsty vampire, it seems Jared Leto has found his next gig. And it’s one he can really sink his teeth into.
Deadline has the scoop, revealing that the former Suicide Squad star has agreed to headline Morbius, a Sony-backed Spider-Man spinoff cut from the same cloth as Venom, Silver & Black, Nightwatch, and the recently-announced Silk movie. Life director Daniel Espinosa is reportedly behind the lens for this one, and will helm from a script penned by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, creators of Netflix’s rebooted Lost in Space series.
Story-wise, Morbius, the Living Vampire orbits around the doomed biochemist Dr. Michael Morbius, who “in an attempt to cure a fatal blood disease injects himself with a treatment serum derived from bats.” Think I Am Legend, only on a more personal level.
Morbius is also much darker in tone, after leaked story intel confirmed the film’s horror leanings. Because once he mutates into a living vampire, Morbius becomes a totally different breed of vigilante, as he begins to “prey upon criminals he deems unworthy of life.” Yikes.
This is a horror action story of a scientist who, in trying to find a cure for a rare blood disease, accidentally transformed himself into a living vampire who, though disgusted by his own bloodlust, chooses to prey upon criminals he deems unworthy of life.
The character originated in 1970s Marvel Comics as a nemesis to Spider-Man, but he quickly struck a chord with the comic book community and wound up with a freestanding issue of his own. Fast forward to now, and Morbius is all set to become the latest branch of Sony’s Marvel Universe, one propped up Jared Leto and Daniel Espinosa.
And it all begins with Venom. Sony and Ruben Fleischer’s franchise-starter slithers into theaters on October 5th.