Sony Talked to Antoine Fuqua About Directing the Morbius Movie

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Sony Has Talked with Training Day's Fuqua About a Morbius Movie

By Brandon Staley

Published Apr 25, 2018

Training Day director Antoine Fuqua reveals that Sony once considered him to helm their announced Morbius movie.

Morbius might not be the Marvel Comics vampire at the top of everyone’s big screen wish list, but someone at Sony has had the living vampire in their heart for a while. Training Day director Antoine Fuqua recently revealed that he had a conversation with a Sony representative about adapting the character for the screen.

"As a kid I grew up with comic books,” Fuqua said in an interview with Joblo.com. “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."

Fuqua might be referring to the Morbius film announced last year, though Fuqua did not clarify the exact timeline. The film's script was developed by Power Rangers writers Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama and will reportedly take place in the current Spider-Man universe jointly created by Sony and Marvel Studios.

Morbius is largely considered a Spider-Man villain, which might cause some to question why Sony would devote an entire solo movie to him. Marvel villains getting standalone films is untested ground in the modern age of superhero movies, but Sony has shown an eagerness to explore such waters with the upcomingVenom, which focuses on the Spider-Man villain by the same name. Similarly, Avengers: Infinity War looks to spend a decent chunk of its runtime humanizing Thanos, one of the Marvel Universe’s most vile players.

Debuting in Amazing Spider-Man #101 in 1971, Morbius the Living Vampire was created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. As his name implies, Morbius is not an actual vampire. Instead, Michael Morbius was a brilliant biochemist with a debilitating blood disorder who used an experimental procedure of his own design to treat his illness. The experiment failed, leaving Morbius with symptoms mirroring that of a vampire.

Fuqua’s next film is The Equalizer 2, which focuses on a former CIA black ops operative who learns that one of his longtime friends has been murdered and uses the skills he amassed during his career to take revenge. The film stars Denzel Washington, Ashton Sanders, Pedro Pascal, Melissa Leo, Bill Pullman and Eminem. The Equalizer 2 debuts in theaters on July 20.