'Morbius' will start shooting "early next year".

Matt Tolmach

Matt Tolmach

Producers Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad have confirmed their next 'Spider-Man' spin-off will star Jared Leto as the titular villain and they hope to get filming underway in February.

Asked what their next project will be, Matt confirmed: "'Morbius' is the next one...

"The plan is early part of next year. We're still working on it."

Avi added: "More or less, February?"

The producers are delighted to have Jared on board for the film because, just like Tom Hardy in 'Venom', he's passionate about the character but can be tricky to fit in new projects.

Avi told Collider: "This is the great thing for us now, that an actor like him, and an actor like Tom wanted to have their own character. But the character they love.

"Both of them, very hard to get them to do a movie. You actually cannot get them. We went in, we sat with them, and everybody told us, 'Oh, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.' Nothing. That's what he wanted to do. Tom. And Jared, too.

"We went to this place with them, and he just...good actors want to be different than what they are."

Morbius the Living Vampire first appeared in the comic book series 'The Amazing Spider-Man' as an antagonist in 1971.

The character started off life as a scientist but his life was turned upside down when he attempted to cure himself of a blood disease with disastrous results, leaving him with vampire fangs and a thirst for blood.

Morbius landed his own series, 'Morbius, the Living Vampire', in 1992 until 1995.

The new movie is yet to have a release date pencilled in.