Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions is developing a Universal Pictures biopic of Dracula originator Bela Lugosi, per Deadline. The script hails from Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the writers behind Tim Burton’s Ed Wood and Rudy Ray Moore biographical comedy Dolemite is My Name. The biopic is said to follow “a younger Lugosi, capturing his meteoric rise to […]
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions is developing a Universal Pictures biopic of Dracula originator Bela Lugosi, per Deadline.
The script hails from Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the writers behind Tim Burton’s Ed Wood and Rudy Ray Moore biographical comedy Dolemite is My Name.
The biopic is said to follow “a younger Lugosi, capturing his meteoric rise to become one of cinema’s most enduring and recognizable figures. The film chronicles his immigration from Hungary and rise to stardom, both as the star of Dracula on Broadway and the Hollywood adaptation, as well as his precipitous fall after declining the role of Frankenstein, which went to his future rival Boris Karloff.”
Born in Lugos, Hungary (now part of Romania) on October 20, 1882, Béla Ference Dezso Blaskó started his early career on the Hungarian stage before serving in World War I and eventually landed the iconic role of Count Dracula in the 1931 film.
Though the actor never quite escaped the long shadow of the classic monster, Lugosi’s horror contributions are robust. Our own Brian Keiper captures the actor’s impressive legacy, worth reading to get an idea of what we might expect from the upcoming biopic.
