EXCLUSIVE: Appian Way Productions, the production company of Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson, has teamed with producers Alex Cutler and Darryl Marshak to develop a Universal Pictures biopic of Bela Lugosi, the Hungarian star of stage and screen who originated the iconic role of Dracula both on Broadway and in the classic 1931 Universal horror film, multiple sources tell Deadline.
Reps for Universal declined comment. While insiders stressed that it’s very early days on this project, the backstory is interesting, as it came into Universal as a pitch around two years ago, and has been quietly gestating ever since. Script is by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the writers of Tim Burton’s Ed Wood, which won Martin Landau an Oscar and other best honors for his portrayal of Lugosi at the end of his life.
Unlike that 1994 classic, the new film will focus on 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.
While Lugosi could never escape the role of Dracula, it cemented his place in history, as the cornerstone of the pantheon of legendary monsters from Universal, which is still celebrated today. With Halloween speedy approaching, there can be no better time to revisit the works that made Lugosi a star.
Jennifer Davisson, Michael Hampton and Leonardo DiCaprio will produce the new Lugosi project for Appian Way.
A pair of the town’s most celebrated screenwriters, who are widely known for their ‘anti-biopic’ narratives, Alexander and Karaszewski have written some of Hollywood’s most indelible award-winning roles for actors, with projects like The People vs. Larry Flynt, Man on the Moon, Big Eyes, Dolemite is My Name and American Crime Story, for which they earned multiple Emmys and PGA Awards, as well as a WGA Award. Most recently, they penned the script for a biopic about The Grateful Dead, which is set up at Apple.
Industry veterans Cutler and Marshak are a pair of first cousins who have been working towards a Lugosi film for many years, beginning when they were teens. Marshak, who went on to become a talent agent, worked with DiCaprio early in each of their careers.
Most recently, Appian Way has produced Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated Apple pic Killers of the Flower, starring DiCaprio, as well as titles like The Featherweight and Queen of Bones. As an actor, DiCaprio can currently be seen starring in One Battle Another, the critically acclaimed film from Paul Thomas Anderson, which has grossed over $138 million worldwide. Said to be circling Michael Mann’s Heat 2, which has just moved from Warner Bros. to retailer MGM’s United Artists, he’s also recently entered talks to star opposite Jennifer Lawrence in What Happens at Night, a new Scorsese Apple pic, based on the novel from Peter Cameron.
Alexander and Karaszewski are represented by CAA and Entertainment 360. Appian Way is repped by LBI and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller. Cutler & Marshak are repped by Michael Sherman at Eisner Law.
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