Spider-Man Spin-Off Movie Morbius Adds A Doctor Who Star

The Morbius The Living Vampire movie currently being developed by Sony Pictures has had Jared Leto attached to star for about half-a-year so far, but it now looks like he's no longer alone as part of the comic book adaptation. New reports say that Doctor Who star Matt Smith is in final negotiations to join the project, adding to his growing sci-fi filmmography.

This news comes to us from Variety, though the trade doesn't say who the actor will be playing in the film. Apparently the ink isn't exactly dry just yet, but Matt Smith is getting prepared to sign on the dotted line. It will be his first opportunity to work with director Daniel Espinosa, whose resume includes the thriller Safe House and the sci-fi horror film Life. It's unclear exactly when the movie is moving forward into production, but following the incredible success of Venom one can imagine the folks at Sony wanting to pump out as many Spider-Man-related projects as they possibly can in as little time as necessary.

Matt Smith is definitely best known to pop culture addicts as the Eleventh Doctor on the beloved series Doctor Who, and more recently he's been starring as Prince Philip in The Crown, but he does have some notable big screen experience. He signed on for his first feature franchise playing the manifestation of Skynet in Terminator Genisys - though that didn't exactly work out so well for anybody involved. He also took on the part of Parson Collins in 2016's Pride and Prejudice And Zombies, and was featured last year opposite Natalie Dormer and Stanley Tucci in the outbreak horror film Patient Zero. He's recently also starred in a pair of biopics, playing notorious photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in Ondi Timoner's Mapplethorpe and cult leader Charlie Manson in Mary Harron's Charlie Says.

None of that stuff compares to what's coming up on Matt Smith's slate, however. While his role is being kept tightly under wraps, he apparently has a part to play in J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX, which will be hitting theaters in December. It's not even clear if he's playing a hero or a villain in the trilogy capper - a situation that is now matched by his part in Morbius.

Dr. Michael Morbius was first introduced to the pages of Marvel Comics back in the early 1970s as an antagonist for Spider-Man. A biochemist with a rare blood disease, he made the mistake of doing experiments on himself, and the consequences saw him turn into a non-undead blood-sucking monster a.k.a. a living vampire. The screenplay for the upcoming solo film is being written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, who are best known for Dracula Untold, The Last Witch Hunter, Gods of Egypt, and episodes of the Netflix Lost In Space series.