Sony Pictures has planted flags for two Marvel projects in 2020, the company announced Wednesday.
The first film is an “Untitled Sony/Marvel” dated for July 10, 2020, and the second film which is “Untitled Sony/Marvel Sequel,” is dated for Oct. 2, 2020.
The first project will most likely be “Morbius,” which will star Oscar-winner Jared Leto with Daniel Espinosa directing and is based on the Marvel comic. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach will produce with Lucas Foster. Palak Patel will oversee for the studio. Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless wrote the script.
The Morbius character was created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane and first appeared in “The Amazing Spider-Man” issue no. 101 in 1971. In the comics, Michael Morbius is a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist who is transformed into a vampire while attempting to cure a rare blood disease with a highly experimental approach involving electroshock therapy… and vampire bats.
As a “pseudo-vampire,” Morbius does not possess all the powers of an actual vampire, and isn’t subject to all the traditional limitations and weaknesses thereof, according to Marvel lore.
Morbius almost made it to the big screen before. In 2000, when Avi Arad was president and CEO of Marvel Studios, the company entered into an agreement with Artisan Entertainment to turn at least 15 Marvel superhero franchises into live-action films, television series, direct-to-video films or internet projects. Morbius would have been among the franchises.
The second project is most likely a sequel to “Venom,” which has grossed $779 million worldwide at the box office since its October release.