Morbius (Sony Pictures)

[dpippel]

Title: Morbius: The Living Vampire (2020)

Genre: Action, Horror, Science Fiction

Director: Daniel Espinosa

Cast: Jared Leto, Adria Arjona, Matt Smith, Jared Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Al Madrigal

Release: 2020-07-31

Plot: Biochemist Michael Morbius tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead.

Looks like Sony has committed to another Spider-man spinoff film, without Spider-man, before seeing how Venom works out. Jared Leto is confirmed to be starring in Morbius, with Daniel Espinosa (Life, Safe House) set to direct:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/h...-title-morbius-daniel-espinosa-direct-1108907

 

[Malcolm R]

Link to first info from set of Sony's Morbius:

https://ew.com/movies/2019/03/05/morbius-jared-leto-photo/

 

[dpippel]

Not much info about this film has been released yet, so I found this interesting and perhaps a bit questionable. Supposedly, this is a leaked image of Jared Leto in full makeup/CGI as Morbius, and fans are pretty happy with the look:

 

[dpippel]

And just like that the first trailer has been released, with a Vulture cameo to boot:

 

[Jake Lipson]

I suppose it was a condition of their deal for Marvel to do the third Spider-Man film with Tom Holland. But I'm really not a fan of Sony putting this into MCU continuity by getting to include the Vulture or Holland's Spider-Man. It seems like a very high cost for Marvel to allow something that Kevin Feige's team did not oversee into their continuity, and it does not make me any more interested in this film than I already was. (In case that's not clear, I mean I'm skipping this, just like I skipped Venom.)

I just hope these connections don't ruin whatever Marvel wants to do with the next Spider-Man.

 

[Sam Favate]

The trailer doesn't do much of anything for me. It seems kind of generic. (I'm not a big Jared Leto fan, so there's that too.) The Spider-Man image is quite literally a blink-and-miss-it thing. I did miss it; I had to go back and see it.

I don't really have any interest in seeing this. With this and Venom, Sony seems to get the tone of the Spider-Man world wrong.

 

[Malcolm R]

I enjoyed Venom and it looks like I might enjoy this, too. Enjoy vampires; like Leto; love the makeup. I was never a comics person, so I don't have much knowledge of the characters beyond the films.

I enjoy the Feige/Marvel films but don't uphold them as sacrosanct, so I have no issues with whatever Sony wants to do with the characters they have the rights to use. They paid for them, might as well use them if the audiences will show up.

I admit, though, that even I was surprised at the popularity of Venom. That certainly emboldened Sony to move ahead with more films in that "universe."

 

[dpippel]

I admit, though, that even I was surprised at the popularity of Venom. That certainly emboldened Sony to move ahead with more films in that "universe."

Same here. I never expected Venom to be as successful as it turned out to be. While I certainly didn't love it, the movie was enjoyable enough for what it was. Hopefully, Morbius will turn out to be better than expected as well.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The only intriguing thing about this trailer for me was the Spider-Man graffiti (with MURDERER spray-painted over it) and the appearance of Michael Keaton as Toomes.

I have A LOT of questions about how this joint custody arrangement is going to work.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I have A LOT of questions about how this joint custody arrangement is going to work.

I suspect that Sony did that on their own without Marvel's okay, but they don't appear to need it. I said when the original deal for Civil War and Homecoming was announced that if I were Marvel, I would insist upon a clause prohibiting Sony from using elements of the MCU films in films that Marvel does not work on. The issue here is that if they are including Toomes and a reference to Mysterio's murder, then clearly that is intended to make the audience consider this as an MCU film because those films are in the MCU. But if this film is bad -- and from the look of the trailer, I think it looks awful -- I'm not sure the wider general public (who don't spend their time on movie websites like us) will understand that Marvel didn't make this movie. So it presents an opportunity for Sony to damage Marvel's quality control reputation.

Although he doesn't seem to have a way to prevent this from happening, I doubt Kevin Feige is happy about this. I suspect that, at least on the films in which he is involved, he will treat the Sony-only films in the same way that he treated Agents of SHIELD and the Marvel Netflix shows, in that they can be off in a corner because they are annoyances, and he just won't reference them at all. That's what I would do. Certainly I do not think that Morbius will include any references to the Disney-owned parts of the MCU.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I suspect that Sony did that on their own without Marvel's okay, but they don't appear to need it.

I'm guessing that allowing these references to the Sony-owned characters in the MCU was the sweetener that brought Sony back to the table for a third Marvel Studios-produced Spider-Man movie.

If they were allowed to do it all along, there would have been Homecoming references in Venom.

I suspect that, at least on the films in which he is involved, he will treat the Sony-only films in the same way that he treated Agents of SHIELD and the Marvel Netflix shows, in that they can be off in a corner because they are annoyances, and he just won't reference them at all. That's what I would do.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Marvel Studios movies don't acknowledge/reference events in the Sony-produced movies, but I hope the two franchises at least don't contradict each other.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I'm guessing that allowing these references to the Sony-owned characters in the MCU was the sweetener that brought Sony back to the table for a third Marvel Studios-produced Spider-Man movie.

Good theory, except...wasn't Morbius shooting before they renewed their deal? The deal renewal happened in what, October? I don't remember the exact date that this news came down, but the "breakup" was announced in August, right before the re-release of Far From Home with the extended cut footage for Labor Day. The script for this (and an appearance by Keaton) would have had to be decided upon a while ago.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Good theory, except...wasn't Morbius shooting before they renewed their deal? The deal renewal happened in what, October? I don't remember the exact date that this news came down, but the "breakup" was announced in August, right before the re-release of Far From Home with the extended cut footage for Labor Day. The script for this (and an appearance by Keaton) would have had to be decided upon a while ago.

The MCU elements were apparently added during the September 2019 reshoots, after the existing arrangement with Marvel Studios had collapsed but before they came to the new arrangement.

 

[Jake Lipson]

The MCU elements were apparently added during the September 2019 reshoots, after the existing arrangement with Marvel Studios had collapsed but before they came to the new arrangement.

If that is that case, it would seem that those elements would have been there whether or not they came to a new deal.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

If that is that case, it would seem that those elements would have been there whether or not they came to a new deal.

I'm guessing that the previous arrangement had some sort of stipulation, and once they were no longer in business together, Sony no longer felt like it needed to abide by that stipulation.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I'm guessing that the previous arrangement had some sort of stipulation, and once they were no longer in business together, Sony no longer felt like it needed to abide by that stipulation.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Kevin Feige says about this. He has Black Widow out before Morbius comes out, and it wouldn't surprise me if the subject comes up on press tour. He'll probably have to be diplomatic because they are in business together on the third Spider-Man, but still, he will likely be asked.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

This trailer isn't really grabbing me, so my expectations are pretty low at this point. I thought Venom was really enjoyable, but this feels pretty generic so far.

 

[dpippel]

Sony just released a new trailer for Morbius:

 

[TonyD]

I’m not annoyed about this the way I am with Venom not having their creation tied to Spider-Man as Venom should have done.

Morbius while being part of the Spider-verse isn’t totally reliant on its connection to SM like Venom.

I can go with a Morbius story that doesn’t even have Spider-Man in it or with only a passing mention.

I’m more interested in this then anything I saw in either venom movie besides that credits bit in V2.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I’m not annoyed about this the way I am with Venom not having their creation tied to Spider-Man as Venom should have done.

Morbius while being part of the Spider-verse isn’t totally reliant on its connection to SM like Venom.

I can go with a Morbius story that doesn’t even have Spider-Man in it or with only a passing mention.

I’m more interested in this then anything I saw in either venom movie besides that credits bit in V2.

Do you interpret that mid-credits scene to mean that Spider-Man and Venom are going to be in a film together? That's the way I read it.