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Leonardo DiCaprio's production company is set to make a biopic based on Dracula star Bela Lugosi's life, and it's bringing back writers from a similar Tim Burton movie.
DiCaprio's company Appian Way Productions has teamed up with producers Alex Cutler and Darryl Marshak to develop a Universal Pictures biopic of Bela Lugosi, as reported by Deadline. Writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski have already written the script.
Lugosi is one of the most celebrated figures in the horror genre, starring in such classics as The Wolf Man, Son of Frankenstein, The Black Cat, White Zombie, The Invisible Ray, and, of course, Dracula. Lugosi's take on the elusive vampire remains one of the most memorable, and directly contrasted the original Nosferatu, forever changing the way the fanged monsters are portrayed in cinema.
The upcoming movie is said to focus on the Hungarian actor's early years as he immigrated to the US and shot to stardom in the late 1920s, before taking on career career-defining role as Count Dracula in the 1931 Universal Monsters horror movie Dracula. The biopic will also explore the actor's career decline after losing the role of Frankenstein's monster to rival Boris Karloff.
Although Universal has yet to confirm the project, which has yet to reveal an official title, Deadline reports that the film was pitched around two years ago. However, producing cousins Culter and Marshak have actually been wanting to make the movie for many years, since they were teens.
This isn't the first time Lugosi's life has been brought to he big screen, as the star was portrayed by Martin Landau in Tim Burton's 1994 film Ed Wood, which was written by the same duo behind the upcoming movie, Alexander and Karaszewski. However, the '90s Oscar-winner looks at Lugosi at the end of his life rather than in the prime of his acting career.
For more, check out our list of the best vampire movies, and keep up with the most exciting upcoming movies heading your way.
