Jared Leto is heading from the DC universe to Marvel. The Oscar-winning actor has been tapped to star inMorbius the Living Vampire, one of Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man spinoffs that will center on the character known as “The Living Vampire” from the pages of Marvel Comics. Leto has reportedly been loosely attached to the project for a while but recently signed on officially for the movie, which is set to possibly begin filming later this year.
In addition to getting Jared Leto on board to star, Sony has tapped Daniel Espinosa, known for directing movies such asSafe HouseandLife, to helm the comic book flick. Leto reportedly met with several directors before agreeing to officially sign on forMorbius. He wanted to be sure the project was heading in the right direction and, after meeting with Espinosa last month in Germany while on tour with his band Thirty Seconds to Mars, he apparently felt good enough about it to sign on the dotted line. The script for the spin-off was penned by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama (Lost in Space).
Jared Letois familiar with the world of comic book movies. He is still attached to reprise his role as The Joker for Warner Bros. in the DCEU. The actor appeared in 2016’sSuicide Squad, which was a critical disaster but a commercial success for the studio. This new project won’t be getting in the way of his future as the Clown Prince of Crime. Leto is currently developing a solo Joker movie at Warner Bros., which is separate from the Joker origin movie that is in the works that has Joaquin Phoenix attached to star with Todd Phillips (The Hangover) directing. It sounds very much like Leto will be filmingMorbiusbefore suiting back up as The Joker.
Morbiusthe Living Vampire debuted in the pages ofThe Amazing Spider-Man#101, courtesy of writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane. The issue was the first not to be penned by Stan Lee. The character is not technically a vampire, at least not in the traditional sense. He gained his vampiric bloodlust after running experiments on himself to cure a rare blood disease. Needless to say, those experiments didn’t go as planned.Morbiusgrew fangs and developed a need for blood to survive. His bite can be deadly, but his victims don’t turn into vampires.
Venom, the first of Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off movies that are not going to be connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, arrives in theaters in October. By the looks of it,Morbiuswill be the next movie to enter production, but the studio is also developingSilver and Blackcentered on Silver Sable and Black Cat, as well asSilk, which recently came to light and will see the Korean-American heroine take center stage. Spike Lee is also said to be in talks for aNightwatchadaptation.Morbiuscurrently doesn’t have a release date set. This news comes to us courtesy ofVariety.
