Jared Leto Looks Vampiric In 'Morbius' Set Photo, Jared Harris And Tyrese Gibson Join Cast

Sony's Spidey-verse is on a roll with the $800M-grossing Venom and the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse under their belt. Now all eyes have turned to the next film, Morbius, which stars Jared Leto as the vampiric antihero.  Turns out, production has been going on for a week, and we know that because Jared Leto dropped this behind-the-scenes glimpse which features nothing but his hair and saggy eyes...

1 week down...11 to go...🧛‍♀️🧛‍♀️
Get Ready 💪#MORBIUS @MorbiusMovie pic.twitter.com/3Tm9CGGKFz

— JARED LETO (@JaredLeto) March 5, 2019

Always so sleepy-eyed. And pale. He already looks like a vampire, not sure they had to hire a makeup team for this one.

Anyway, the cast surrounding Leto has grown to include yet another big screen Jared, this time Mad Men and The Crown's Jared Harris. The British actor's role is being kept under wraps, which isn't surprising. He's particularly good at playing villains with a stuffy elitist attitude, as he did in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. However he's expected to play an unidentified mentor of Morbius, who gains vampire-like abilities and a thirst for blood after conducting experiments involving vampire bats.

Also possibly coming aboard is Fast & Furious troublemaker, Tyrese Gibson, who has entered talks to play an FBI agent on Morbius' trail. It's the last major piece of casting left to be filled, as Adria Arjona is set to play Morbius' fiancé Martine Bancroft, and Matt Smith is villain Loxias Crown.

Morbius is directed by Daniel Espinosa and opens on July 31st 2020. [THR]

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Jared Leto's 'Morbius' Film Adds Adria Arjona As Female Lead

With so many Spider-Man spinoff movies and sequels going around the Sony office, it's easy to forget there are other characters without "Spider" in their name. Jared Leto is set to star in Sony's film Morbius the Living Vampire film, and with production right around the corner a female lead has been named, and it's Pacific Rim Uprising star Adria Arjona.

Arjona is in talks for the role of Martine Bancroft, the fiancée of Dr. Michael Morbius. Michael Morbius attempted to cure a rare blood disease with an experimental serum derived from bats, but instead, it gave him vampiric superhuman abilities and a thirst for human blood. Martine becomes a potential victim of Morbius' cravings as he struggles with bloodlust.

It's been a busy few years for Arjona ever since her breakout role in James Gunn's The Belko Experiment. On the big screen she has appeared in Pacific Rim Uprising, Life of the Party with Melissa McCarthy, and next year's Triple Frontier and Six Underground. She also had a role in HBO's True Detective, NBC's Emerald City series, and will be seen in Amazon Prime's Good Omens.

Morbius will be directed by Daniel Espinosa with filming to begin in February. [Deadline]

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Sony May Have Just Confirmed 'Venom 2' And 'Morbius' Release Dates

So far Venom has earned Sony a whopping $780M with plenty left to go, and so it's no surprise they're moving quickly on a sequel and an expansion of their Spidey-free cinematic universe. Today they've announced two new Marvel release dates, and it's pretty easy to figure out that one of them will feature the return of a certain brain-eating alien symbiote.

The first date is for an "Untitled Sony/Marvel" movie on July 10th 2020, and that one is likely to be Morbius the Living Vampire, which we already knew was next on the list with a rumored early 2019 start.  That film will be directed by Daniel Espinosa with actual vampire Jared Leto (He is, right? Or have I been mistaken all these years?) taking on the title role. There's a good chance we'll see more of Leto as Morbius than we'll ever see of him as the Joker.

And the second is an "Untitled Sony/Marvel Sequel" opening on October 2nd 2020. Um, unless Sony is suddenly planning to revive Sam Raimi and Marc Webb's Spider-Man franchises, this could only be Venom 2.  Since the first film hit it big opening in October of this year, Sony is sticking with what they know works and not wasting any time. Tom Hardy can start taking his crazy pills right now, because that date means production should be starting sometime around the middle of next year, perhaps around Comic-Con time? That would be perfect, wouldn't it? [TheWrap]

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Sony's 'Morbius' Film Is The Next Spider-Man Spinoff To Shoot

Sony finally gets a win with their Venom movie and suddenly every other story is about their Spider-Man spinoffs. While we had an update on Kraven the Hunter just a little while ago, it looks as if the next movie to roll out of this franchise will be Morbius, which has Jared Leto set to star as the vampiric hero. Producers Avi Arad and Matt Talmach sat down with Collider and confirmed a start date around February 2019 for the film.

“This is the great thing for us now,” Arad says, “that an actor like [Jared Leto], and an actor like Tom [Hardy] wanted to have their own character. But the character they love. Both of them, very hard to get them to do a movie. You actually cannot get them. We went in, we sat with them, and everybody told us, ‘Oh, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.’ Nothing. That’s what he wanted to do.”

If Arad sounds super confident, he's got good reason. He was the guy who founded Marvel Studios and was in charge of their entire output until Disney came in and bought Marvel. With his past experience working in the toy business, Arad's specialty has always been branding, and that's what he's trying to do with Sony's superheroes now. What they need is a brand that can be seen as different from what Marvel is doing with the MCU. Venom was the start, and moving to another "dark" character like Morbius is the next step.

As for how dark the movie will be...well, that's still up in the air.  The question of an R-rating came up, and that really does seem to be a touchy subject for the folks at Sony. They took some heat from fans who expected Venom to be R-rated, and now the producers are playing coy when it comes to Morbius...

Tolmach says, “I don’t think there’s a rule written somewhere in stone that all of them have to be one thing, alright? I think we’ve all talked about, ‘Well, if one of these presents itself in a way…’ Look, we have all seen, as you’ve said, the R-rated versions of these movies now working. So, that’s out there. You can succeed to a staggering degree.”

Arad adds, "If the success of the story depends on being R-rated. Then, of course, we can do it. But at least for me, I have grandkids, kids, whatever, all these things, and some of these movies, they’re dying to see. You know? As I took my grandson, seven, to the recording session of ‘Venom.’ And he had the time of his life.”

It's worth noting that Venom not only features cuss words, multiple scenes of people having their heads eaten, and at least one use of the word "pussy", so I bet his grandkid did have the time of his life. I was about seven years old the first time I saw Revenge of the Nerds and it was amazing.

Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) will direct Morbius, which doesn't have a release date but 2020 seems like a good bet.

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Jared Leto Joins Sony's Spidey-verse as 'Morbius, The Living Vampire'

Sony has their own special thing going on with their Spider-Man cinematic universe. You don't see Fox building an X-Men universe without the X-Men, do you? Of course not, but that's what Sony is trying to do while Spidey is off gallivanting with the Avengers as part of the MCU. And they seem to be putting together an impressive lineup of talent in order to make this universe a thing. The latest is Oscar winner Jared Leto who has signed on for their upcoming Morbius the Living Vampire movie.

Leto will star as the Spider-Man supporting character, a scientist named Michael Morbius who is infected by a rare blood disease and tries to cure himself. Instead he gives himself superhuman vampire-like qualities, and uses them as an antihero, albeit a very violent and flawed one.  The film will be directed by Daniel Espinosa, best known for Safe House and the recent sci-fi movie Life. He broke out on to the scene with his crime thriller Snabba Cash, and also has the miserable Child 44 to his credit. Lost in Space writers Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama have finished up the script.

Leto may be on the verge of doing what is affectionately referred to as "Pulling a Brolin", playing multiple comic book characters for different cinematic universes at the same time. He'll likely return as his gangsta version of Joker in Suicide Squad 2, and possibly elsewhere within the DCEU. That is unless this new Sony gig is his way of bowing out? It's not like Warner Bros. has a need for more Jokers at this point.

Add Morbius to Sony's growing Spidey-verse that already includes Venom, Silver & Black, and proposed films for Nightwatch and Silk. [Variety]

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Antoine Fuqua Talked With Sony About Directing Marvel's 'Morbius, The Living Vampire'

Imagine this, a Morbius the Living Vampire movie directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Denzel Washington. Damn that would be hot, and the biggest feather in the cap for Sony as they try to launch a cinematic universe with Spider-Man supporting characters. Now, it hasn't happened yet but Fuqua admits to Joblo that he wants to do a superhero movie at some point, and that he's had talks with Sony about Morbius...

“As a kid I grew up with comic books. They talked to me about ‘Black Panther’ years ago, way back in the day. There’s some reason they came up and they talked to me about at Sony, a Marvel character, Morbius [The Living Vampire]…that kinda came up. I don’t know, I have a thirteen-year-old son so I’m watching more of that again and it’s exciting to do that. I’d love to create a new one. Y’know, something that’s closer to what I get excited about.”

He would go on to mention an interest in maybe directing a Blade movie, which would also be a perfect fit. Not necessarily for Denzel, though.

Fuqua is reteaming with Denzel for The Equalizer 2, the first sequel either of them has ever done. They also worked on The Magnificent Seven remake together a couple of years ago, so it's clear they have a smooth working relationship. Come on, Sony! Make this Morbius thing happen! Last update was that screenwriters Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama (Dracula Untold, Power Rangers) were working on the script, but there's currently no other talent attached.

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Morbius The Living Vampire To Be Next Spider-Man Spinoff Film

Kinda considered a joke at first, Sony's non-Spidey Spiderverse is actually looking pretty good. Venom will be the first film out of the gate and it has Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate, and Riz Ahmed on board, followed by a Silver Sable/Black Cat crossover flick with Gina Prince-Bythewood directing. And now another prominent Spidey character is getting his own movie; Morbius, the Living Vampire.

Penned and already submitted to Sony by Burk Sharples and Matt Sazama, co-writers of Power Rangers and the more apt Dracula Untold, the film will center on Morbius, a man with vampire abilities gained through a scientific experiment. He debuted in 1971 as a villain in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man, but would eventually grow in popularity and become a tragic antihero.

With the script already completed the search is on now for a director. Morbius could, and probably should, be conceived as a straight-up horror movie since that is how the character has best been portrayed. His ties to Venom are tenuous, though, so we may see this be a completely standalone effort, or a franchise that's a little off the beaten path. [THR]

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