Sony's Morbius The Living Vampire

[Frontier]

Spider-man in particular had some really strict censors, even for the time. I don't know why. Batman the animated series and even the X-men were able to get away with a LOT more than that series did.

I think I heard somewhere that Fox became so stringent with Spider-Man: The Animated Series precisely because of what they went through with Batman: The Animated Series.

[Vakanai]

I think I heard somewhere that Fox became so stringent with Spider-Man: The Animated Series precisely because of what they went through with Batman: The Animated Series.

What? But Batman the Animated Series was wildly successful and popular, it even won an award or something, why would that make them go stupid on the censorship?

[Rosebunse]

I think the bizarre thing was that the show added Morbius at all. Morbius was more popular in the 90s, sure, but he certainly wasn't one of the more popular characters out there. And he's pretty damn violent anyways. In fact, this is part of the reason I'm rather surprised Sony is making this movie at all. If you don't make him violent and ugly, then he's just another vampire movie. You make him ugly and violent and you make the movie less accessible to normal people.

[phantom1592]

I think the bizarre thing was that the show added Morbius at all. Morbius was more popular in the 90s, sure, but he certainly wasn't one of the more popular characters out there. And he's pretty damn violent anyways. In fact, this is part of the reason I'm rather surprised Sony is making this movie at all. If you don't make him violent and ugly, then he's just another vampire movie. You make him ugly and violent and you make the movie less accessible to normal people.

what do you mean 'normal people'? We've got some down and dirty bloody and violent versions of Punisher, Blade and Crow... not even counting that last Logan movie. And the general public doesn't blink.


I do NOT expect this to be advertised as some combined universe comic book character... I predict it will be advertised as some kind of gory horror movie. The real challenge WILL be in trying to make it look different than 'just another Vampire movie'... and i'm not sure there is still a market for that. But the Spider-Man attachment won't get referenced and shouldn't be an issue one way or another.


Basically like Blade. Leaving that theater I had to explain, convince and finally PROVE that Blade actually WAS a comic book character first and they had just sat through and enjoyed 'a comic movie'. Pre-Iron Man/Batman Begins... that was tough admittance for some people :P

[Rosebunse]

I guess my issue is that I think Morbius is one of those weird comic book characters who needs weird comic book concepts to work. And I don't have faith in Sony to make the right edits and changes. The Punisher, Blade, the Crow, and even Logan all worked because they knew what to change, what to leave in that would appeal to a more mainstream audience. This isn't even getting into the genius work Disney puts into movies like Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, and Black Panther. These movies all had premises that could be alienating, but which under Disney's careful care managed to leverage what made them unique and make it work.

There's a reason Morbius isn't more popular than he is. There's a reason he isn't as used as some other characters. He's very violent and his character is very flawed. How do you make this work?

And now you have Jared Leto, a man known for being difficult to work with and who frankly has squandered his natural talents with obnoxious and sometimes criminal behavior.

[The One and Only]

well, good luck with the project- who will be the antagonist for this film? I hope it's not a generic corporate boss.

I also hope that none of Blade's antagonists are used.

He had some pretty interesting enemies during his early Nineties comic run I thought. Not too mention the fact Morbius was also friends with, and helped Jack Russel, the Werewolf By Night, with his condition as well. Or at least keeping the Werewolf from chomping down on innocents during the full moon. One from Morbius' own trials and tribulations from the seventies, who was brought back for the Nineties mag was former cop, and CIA Special Operative gone rogue, Simon Stroud. Who ,when brought back in the series, was revealed to be feeling incredible guilt over Morbius getting away. Thinking Morbius' condition could spread like a plague if the Living Vampire was not taken out. I could see Stroud being introduced in the film as a police detective investigating Morbius' killings, and trying to stop him. And becoming consumed with stopping him once and for all. Making Stroud the Living Vampire's own Ahab, Van Helsing, and Dr. Loomis all rolled into one.
Then there's Doctor Thaddeus Paine, basically what you get if Joseph Mengele and Eli Roth had a baby together. A brilliant physician, who due to an accident involving an experimental anesthetic, lost all tactile sensation. Both pain and anything else. Leading to him to become obsessed with medical oddities, freaks. And putting them under his own knife. Which more than likely would be a part of his metal gloves with various built in medical devices that would make Freddy Krueger jealous. In his hospital Dr. Paine likes to cut open various patients, find out what makes them tick, and even practice, develop new procedures, and try experimental medical devices on them. He even had Eddie Brock, a.k.a. on his operating table at one point. Seeing the Life Foundation in the upcoming VENOM movie experimenting on terminally ill patients, desperately seeking cures to their conditions. Doctor Paine being one of the scientists playing with the symbiotes in the film wouldn't be that out there.
Last ,but not least, would be Vic Slaughter, former Marine Special Forces turned independent military contractor. Hired by Stroud to kill Morbius, it goes without saying the job goes south, and Morbius kills Slaughter's team, breaks merc's arms and legs, feeds on him, and buries him alive. Vic comes back from this , now infected by Morbius' bite, and turned into a living vampire as well. But unlike Michael, enjoys way too much. A pretty popular character among those who know of him.

[Rosebunse]

Vic Slaughter would be fun, but part of the problem with him is that he's rather boring. The idea behind him is interesting more because Morbius isn't a traditional vampire and thus vampires created from him are few and far between. We don't even know why some of his victims turn while others don't.

This movie could actually distinguish itself quite quickly by giving us a Morbius who actually looks horrible all the time.

[Mistah K88]

Spider-man in particular had some really strict censors, even for the time. I don't know why. Batman the animated series and even the X-men were able to get away with a LOT more than that series did.

It was REALLY weird, especially since some of the censorship rules on Spider-Man TAS were ridiculous (the pigeon rule in particular). It also was problematic that the series wasn't particularly clever of finding things around censorship, unlike Batman the Animated Series (ie: Carnage sucking life force, not being able to come up with euphemisms for "kill" other than "destroy", Morbius having sucker hands for "PLASMAAH". "Insidious Six" when Mr. SINISTER was used on X-Men). Batman is a weird case when it comes to Standards and Practices meddling as it seems that even a comedic take on the Dark Knight (Batman the Brave and the Bold) had actual firearms. I'll forgive X-Men for energy weapons, as they tend to make sense in the mutant universe, especially with someone like Magneto being as high profile as he is. The only time energy weapons don't make sense is when you are up against someone like Bishop... Even Spectacular Spider-Man had unusual ammo, with things like Silver Sable's staple gun and those guns that fire flail pellets (though it can be argued that those little spiked balls are actually nastier than a vanilla bullet). That show did have actual gun's but to please the censors they made "pew pew" laser sounds (which would have been corrected in the DVDs...but...SONY). Though that show did get away with Green Goblin killing some random people at a bar, so that is a gain for animated Spider-Man's perpetual battle with Standards and Practices. As for Morbius, I think he was also on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon...I haven't seen how he was handled there, but I can expect that S&P wouldn't let him do vampire things there either.

Back to the topic at hand, Morbius can work as a stand alone movie. A scientist struggling to keep his humanity after an unfortunate accident is indeed a compelling story... I'm just not sure how Sony will handle it with their track record.

[Rosebunse]

Ultimate Spiderman went with Morbius stealing people's lifeforce, which is still more sensible than the sucker hands. He also had bat wings! For some reason...but overall, his design was pretty true to the comics and he was pretty cool. He even had that good old Morbius pathetic thing going on. He was probably one of the more evil versions of Morbius, but still pretty cool.

After much thought, I have come to the reason why I like Morbius: He's pathetic, but he keeps trying. I mean, really, we even had a What If? comic where it wad revealed that Peter Parker's life would be so much better if Morbius had died. He's weak willed, he often makes situations worse, and, well, he fails so often. If you take that away from him, then he's pretty boring and generic.

[WebLurker]

Ultimate Spiderman went with Morbius stealing people's lifeforce, which is still more sensible than the sucker hands. He also had bat wings! For some reason...but overall, his design was pretty true to the comics and he was pretty cool. He even had that good old Morbius pathetic thing going on. He was probably one of the more evil versions of Morbius, but still pretty cool.

Was that in the cartoon version? The Ultimate comics version was nothing like that (and anything but pathetic, too).

[Hypestyle]

Sony still owns Blade movie rights?

No. but because of the "vampire" connection, I hope the creatives involved don't simply try to cut and paste with any Blade related characters.

[Rosebunse]

Was that in the cartoon version? The Ultimate comics version was nothing like that (and anything but pathetic, too).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima...an_(TV_series)

I meant this series. The cartoon? It wasn't cancelled that long ago.

And no, this Morbius is pretty damn pathetic.

[Tofali]

I hope Sony knows what they doing hiring Leto after his disgusting antics in Suicide Squad.

[Rosebunse]

I can see their logic in hiring Leto. He was a popular actor a few years ago. He has an award for a praised performance and he's not a bad actor. He mifht just be crazy enough to give us a some what accurate looking Morbius. He also seems genuinely interested in this project. But he's also a very, very weird man who has been accused of a few very horrible thing.

I don't think any of us would mind were the MeToo movement to get him off this project. But I honestly dont think Sony would care.

[Captain Craig]

This project had dropped off my radar for awhile till I just came across this thread again.
I feel that Morbius could be a stellar film cause it could be done without as much concern about being directly tied to Spidey immediately.
The Venom movie concerns me cause from an origin standpoint you need Spider-man and all that is tied to it, to be done right anyway.
Morbius could just start 'x' time after his transformation and only mildly allude to his origins and/or fights with Spidey.