MORBIUS Uses Thanos-Like Motion-Capture To Bring Jared Leto's Living Vampire To Life

MORBIUS Uses Thanos-Like Motion-Capture To Bring Jared Leto's Living Vampire To Life

Morbius star Jared Leto and VFX Supervisor Matthew E. Butler have revealed that the Living Vampire side of Dr. Michael Morbius will be brought to life using Thanos-like motion-capture in the Marvel movie.

By JoshWilding - Feb 25, 2022 03:02 PM EST
Filed Under: Morbius
Source: The Direct

There's now just over a month to go before Morbius arrives in theaters, and we're hoping Sony Pictures plans to reveal more from filmmaker Daniel Espinosa's take on the Marvel Comics character in the coming weeks. Thankfully, a new trailer is coming this Monday, but for now, some intriguing new details have been revealed in the movie's press notes.

We suspected this would be the case, but star Jared Leto and VFX Supervisor Matthew E. Butler have both confirmed that the Living Vampire was brought to life solely through visual effects. Morbius is the type of character who could have been created on-screen with makeup and prosthetics, but the Oscar-winning actor was keen to reap the benefits that come with special effects.

"When you put a character on the screen for the first time, you have a big opportunity to create something. I was adamant from the beginning that we use technology to enhance and help with the transformation, especially of Morbius himself, because I thought that that’s where we would have fewest limitations," Leto explains. "There’s limitless potential using some of these new technologies, so it’s interesting to be part of that and to push the envelope."

Butler, meanwhile, shed some light on Morbius' transformation, explaining that "[he] can 'bloom' from his human version into the vampiric version and back again, so he’s not continually in that phase. He can go in and out - typically through anger. He needed to be able to morph into different expressions." To achieve that effect, Thanos-style motion-capture was utilised.

"We decided that the actors would perform on stage and we would recapture that performance with a marked-up array of dots on their faces and helmet cameras that can capture all of those subtleties," Butler reveals. "The software can translate that performance into the performance of a creature that is completely different. That’s something we achieved quite well with Thanos."

We're intrigued to see how all this comes together. There's absolutely nothing wrong with mo-cap being used for a character like Morbius, and Leto was no doubt excited to see what he could do with the technology after going through the traditional makeup process for movies like Suicide Squad and House of Gucci. Hopefully, it results in a version of the character that does the comic books justice.

Morbius will finally arrive in theaters on April 1.

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dracula
dracula - 2/25/2022, 3:05 PM
too lazy to do make up?

Thanos is a purple alien twice the size of a normal big guy.

morbius really just needs his face to look different
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 2/25/2022, 3:25 PM
@dracula

I mean, does his design look terrible? I don’t think the movie looks good but his design doesn’t look like the problem.
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 2/25/2022, 4:32 PM
@dracula - One of the VFX houses listed on imdb is Digital Domain, who did several shots of Thanos in recent movies without any makeup. I wouldn't call them lazy...
FinnishDude
FinnishDude - 2/25/2022, 3:19 PM
That's a really fancy way of saying that you just didn't want to sit in a make-up chair for hours, Leto.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 2/25/2022, 3:25 PM
What a waste of money

Colin Farrell lookin at Leto:
Nightmare
Nightmare - 2/25/2022, 4:56 PM
@BlackBeltJones -

1stDalek
1stDalek - 2/25/2022, 5:08 PM
@Nightmare -

Yep, Leto is not one to shy away from spending hours in make-up. This was more than likely the movie team's decision.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 2/25/2022, 5:34 PM
@Nightmare -

dracula
dracula - 2/25/2022, 3:33 PM
remember when kelsey grammer went through the beast make up process for a cameo, where he was barely in focus and had one line.

Really the x men movies for all their faults, are pretty much the standard for stuff like this
blackandyellow
blackandyellow - 2/25/2022, 3:33 PM
TheSuperMex
TheSuperMex - 2/25/2022, 4:22 PM
@blackandyellow - looks like the typical Pittsburgh resident.
Matchesz
Matchesz - 2/25/2022, 3:54 PM
Something tells me we will only get glimpes of his vampire form anyway. No way they’re hiding jared letos pretty face
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 2/25/2022, 4:07 PM
OT:

There are a lot of critics talking but "not talking" about The Batman on Twitter. Sounds like we're in for a hell of a flick.
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 2/25/2022, 4:09 PM


dragon316
dragon316 - 2/25/2022, 4:15 PM
@regularmovieguy - never listen to critics and reviews scores listening to critics you may as well jimmy kinmel and all other late night talk show hosts be critics to listen to
AntiDragon613
AntiDragon613 - 2/25/2022, 5:30 PM
@dragon316 - Yeah @regularmovieguy! How dare you put any stock into what professional journalists who’ve based their careers off of critiquing films and probably know more about the nuances of the media than us illiterate Dragons! Where do you get off!? The nerve of some people.
dragon316
dragon316 - 2/25/2022, 4:17 PM
So he morph back and forth what is he werewolf , vampire from Buffy series ?
odinson40
odinson40 - 2/26/2022, 6:17 AM
@dragon316 - vampires can change shape and form, and even turn into another animals
TheSuperMex
TheSuperMex - 2/25/2022, 4:26 PM
I thought it was makeup. I guess they did do a good job.
AnthonyVonGeek
AnthonyVonGeek - 2/25/2022, 9:52 PM
Really? And here I thought that since Leto is such a method actor he actually became a vampire.

😜
breakUbatman
breakUbatman - 2/26/2022, 2:40 AM
Would have been cool to have some old school prosthetic transformations like American Werewolf or Bill Bixby in Hulk. I used to be wild about CGI back in the late 90s as I've gotten older I appreciate practical work more.

That being said Thanos was glorious.
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