Actor Matt Smith is in final talks to join Jared Leto in "Morbius", a film based on the Spider-Man villain of the same name.

Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, who co-created the Netflix series "Lost in Space", penned the script. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are producing "Morbius" with Lucas Foster. Palak Patel will oversee the film for Sony Pictures.

Writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane created Morbius in 1971 for "The Amazing Spider-Man #101". The character was a scientist who tried to cure himself of a blood disease, with tragic results. He became afflicted with vampire traits such as fangs and a thirst for blood -- and wound up battling Spider-Man.

Morbius appeared sporadically in Marvel Comics in the subsequent years and was revived in the 1992 series "Morbius, the Living Vampire", which had a 32-issue run through April of 1995.

--IANS

sug/nn/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)