Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way developing Bela Lugosi biopic for Universal

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Per Deadline, Leonardo DiCaprio is growing a biopic about Bela Lugosi for Common Photos by means of his Appian Approach Productions banner. The long-lasting actor is greatest recognized for enjoying Dracula within the basic 1931 horror movie.

The report states that it’s nonetheless early days on the undertaking, but it surely was first pitched to the studio two years in the past. The script comes from Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who have already got a familiarity with Lugosi because of writing Tim Burton’s Ed Wooden. That movie featured Martin Landau as Lugosi within the last years of his life (Landau received an Oscar for the position), however this new undertaking will concentrate on a a lot youthful Lugosi.

The brand new undertaking will observe Lugosi as he immigrates from Hungary to america and seize his “meteoric rise to change into certainly one of cinema’s most enduring and recognizable figures… each because the star of Dracula on Broadway and the Hollywood adaptation, in addition to his precipitous fall after declining the position of Frankenstein, which went to his future rival Boris Karloff.“

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The success of Dracula was each a blessing and a curse for Bela Lugosi. It made him a star, certain, but it surely additionally locked him right into a lifetime of horror-typecasting. Within the wake of Dracula’s smash hit, Common provided him the main position in Frankenstein — simply not the one he needed. Lugosi had hoped to play Dr. Henry Frankenstein, however producer Carl Laemmle Jr. had different plans and needed him because the Monster. Lugosi wasn’t having it, and the half finally went to Boris Karloff, who turned the position right into a career-defining second and secured the enduring success that Lugosi himself had lengthy sought.

Lugosi received his shot at Frankenstein glory a number of years later with Son of Frankenstein, the final movie to characteristic Karloff because the Monster. As Ygor, a deranged, broken-necked blacksmith hell-bent on utilizing the creature for his personal twisted functions, Lugosi flat-out stole the film. He got here again for The Ghost of Frankenstein and eventually stepped into the Monster’s huge boots himself in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, closing the loop on certainly one of horror’s most legendary what-ifs. He would return to the position of Dracula for the second and last time on display in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.