Just a couple of weeks after it was confirmed that he’ll be returning to the DCEU as the Clown Prince of Crime for a Joker solo film, Jared Leto has now signed on for another comic book movie project – this time Marvel-related – with the Oscar-winner set to play the title role in Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff Morbius.
Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane and originally debuting as an enemy of Marvel’s web-slinger in The Amazing Spider-Man #101, Dr. Michael Morbius is a biochemist who becomes inflicted with a form of vampirism after attempting to cure himself of a rare blood disease, taking on the mantle of Morbius, the Living Vampire.
With Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) and F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton, The Fate of the Furious) passing on the opportunity, the job of directing Morbius has now fallen to Daniel Espinosa, whose credits include Safe House, Child 44 and Life. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach (The Amazing Spider-Man) are producing, while the script has been written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (Lost in Space).
Morbius is one of a number of Spider-Man spinoffs in development at Sony. The Tom Hardy-headlined Venom is set for release in October, while Silver & Black, Nightwatch and Silk are all in the works.
Via Deadline
