“Hereditary” and “Eddington” director Ari Aster revealed in a new interview that he has been asked to direct one comic book movie in the past: 2022’s “Morbius.”
During a podcast interview with Semafor published Friday, the famously independent filmmaker was asked if the rumor was true that he had been approached at one point to direct a Marvel superhero movie. “Yes, once,” the writer-director confirmed. After some hesitation over whether or not he should reveal which one, Aster said, “I was asked to do — is it ‘Mobius’? ‘Morbius’?”
In response to Semafor media editor Max Tani’s remark that “Morbius” was a “huge flop” and that it would have been “awesome” if Aster had directed it, the “Eddington” filmmaker joked, “Yeah, we could have added it to my list.”
Aster did not, of course, end up directing “Morbius.” That film starred Jared Leto as its eponymous comic book anti-hero vampire. It was part of Sony’s poorly received Spider-Man Universe, other entries of which include last year’s “Kraven the Hunter,” “Madame Web” and the Tom Hardy-led “Venom” trilogy.
“Life” and “Safe House” director Daniel Espinosa ended up directing the film, which was delayed multiple times by the COVID-19 pandemic before eventually hitting theaters on April 1, 2022. It received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics and struggled at the box office, grossing only $167 million. It went on to become the subject of many online memes and jokes directed at its quality.
Aster, for his part, has spent the past seven years making entirely original horror and thriller films with A24. His first two movies, 2018’s “Hereditary” and 2019’s “Midsommar,” performed well financially and easily surpassed their low production budgets at the box office. Until the Best Picture-winning “Everything Everywhere All At Once” was released in 2022, “Hereditary” even ranked as A24’s highest-grossing film.
Aster’s third feature, the Joaquin Phoenix-led divisive tragicomedy horror film “Beau Is Afraid,” underperformed financially. The movie grossed only $12 million, falling short of its reported $35 million budget.
Two years later, Aster is back with his most star-studded movie to date: the 2020-set Western “Eddington,” which stars Joaquin Phoenix as the sheriff of a small New Mexico town who decides to run against the incumbent mayor (Pedro Pascal) in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Emma Stone, Austin Butler and Luke Grimes also star in the film, which has earned mostly positive reviews in the weeks since its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
“Eddington” is now playing in theaters.
