Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions is teaming with Universal Pictures to develop a biopic about legendary Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi.
Lugosi originated the iconic role of Dracula both on Broadway adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel and in the classic 1931 Universal horror film.
The script is by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the writers of Tim Burton’s 1994 film “Ed Wood” which featured Lugosi as a character and won actor Martin Landau an Oscar for his work in the role.
The pair also wrote biopics like “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” “Man on the Moon,” and “Dolemite Is My Name”.
The new film will focus on a younger Lugosi, capturing his rise to become one of black-and-white cinema’s most enduring and recognizable figures. It will also deal with his precipitous fall after declining the role of Frankenstein, which went to his rival Boris Karloff. Lugosi never truly escaped the role of Dracula.
Jennifer Davisson, Alex Cutler and Darryl Marshak would produce the project which is still in its very early days of development.
Source: Deadline
