Bela Lugosi Biopic in the Works at Universal from Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way
Leonardo DiCaprio is trading red carpets for red capes. His production company Appian Way is developing a Universal Pictures biopic about Bela Lugosi, the Hungarian-born legend who gave Count Dracula his immortal bite. And while DiCaprio’s own fangs remain safely in storage for now, the project already has plenty of star power behind the camera.
As first reported by Deadline, the film will be written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the brilliant duo behind Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Man on the Moon and Dolemite Is My Name. Their knack for crafting funny, heartfelt and sometimes tragic portraits of misunderstood icons makes them perfect for tackling Lugosi’s story—a tale equal parts triumph, terror and typecasting.
The film will focus on a younger Lugosi, chronicling his early days as a stage actor in Hungary, his immigration to the United States, and his meteoric rise to fame as the definitive Dracula—first on Broadway, then in Universal’s 1931 horror classic. Lugosi’s hypnotic stare and thick accent turned him into an overnight sensation, transforming the Transylvanian vampire into one of cinema’s most recognisable figures. Unfortunately, his fame proved as fleeting as a bat at sunrise. After turning down the role of Frankenstein’s monster—a decision that handed his rival Boris Karloff a career-defining part—Lugosi’s star began to fade, leading to years of struggle and, eventually, the kind of tragic decline that Hollywood usually reserves for its ghosts.
It is a story tailor-made for DiCaprio’s Appian Way, which has built a reputation for producing prestige dramas with real emotional bite. DiCaprio, along with Jennifer Davisson and Michael Hampton, will produce the film for Appian Way, teaming with long-time Lugosi enthusiasts Alex Cutler and Darryl Marshak. According to Deadline, Cutler and Marshak have been chasing this project for decades, since they were teenagers with a shared obsession for the original Dracula.
If the names Alexander and Karaszewski sound familiar, it is because they previously helped bring Lugosi to life once before—albeit at the end of his career—in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood. That 1994 film earned Martin Landau an Academy Award for his moving portrayal of the ageing horror star. The upcoming biopic, however, promises to explore Lugosi’s rise rather than his fall, showing the actor at his most magnetic and ambitious. Think less “forgotten legend” and more “undead rock star.”
The team behind the project reads like a who’s who of Hollywood prestige. Appian Way recently produced Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, as well as The Featherweight and Queen of Bones. DiCaprio himself has been busy circling major projects including Michael Mann’s Heat 2 and Scorsese’s What Happens at Night. With the addition of a Universal Monsters project, it seems DiCaprio’s empire now stretches from the American frontier to the foggy streets of Transylvania.
For horror fans, this biopic offers a chance to revisit the roots of the genre. Lugosi’s Dracula was not just a performance—it was the birth of the modern movie monster. His haunting delivery, slicked-back hair and aristocratic menace have echoed through pop culture for nearly a century, influencing everyone from Christopher Lee to Gary Oldman and even Sesame Street’s Count von Count. Not bad for a man who started his career performing in Hungarian operettas.
The film will also shed light on the rivalry between Lugosi and Boris Karloff, two titans of terror whose paths crossed often and not always pleasantly. When Lugosi declined to play Frankenstein’s monster—reportedly disliking the idea of being buried under makeup and grunts—the role went to Karloff, cementing a cinematic feud that fans still debate to this day. The tension between them could make for some of the film’s juiciest scenes, particularly if handled with the same dark humour that Alexander and Karaszewski brought to Ed Wood.
While Universal has yet to comment officially, insiders stress that the project is still in its early stages. In other words, no release date, no casting and certainly no blood-draining schedules yet. But for lovers of horror history, it is exciting to see the studio that birthed the Universal Monsters once again celebrating one of its most iconic figures.
Bela Lugosi may have spent much of his career trapped by the shadow of Dracula, but this new biopic could finally give the man behind the cape his due. His story is one of passion, pride and a pinch of tragedy—the perfect mix for an actor who lived and died for his art.
And if DiCaprio really wants to get method about producing, he could always spend a few nights in a coffin. For research, of course.
