Leonardo DiCaprio Producing Biopic of DRACULA’s Bela Lugosi

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A new movie about the life of Bela Lugosi, the original actor who played Dracula in the 1931 film, is in the works. Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company is backing the biopic, and the script will be written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski – the same team who made the 1994 film *Ed Wood*, which featured a portrayal of an aging Lugosi and won an Oscar for Martin Landau. Alexander and Karaszewski are known for successful biopics like *The People vs. Larry Flynt* and the *The People vs. O.J. Simpson* series.

I’m a huge fan of Bela Lugosi! It’s amazing to think he first played Dracula on stage way back in the 1920s, after coming to America from Hungary. Universal Pictures didn’t actually want *him* at first – they were hoping for a more famous actor. But Lugosi was much more affordable, so they gave him the role. That movie, directed by Tod Browning, was a massive success and really brought the first truly scary monster to American audiences. It basically kicked off the whole Universal Monsters craze, leading to classics like *Frankenstein* and *The Mummy*, and so many others that we still love today.

When most people picture Dracula, they still see Bela Lugosi’s portrayal – it’s the one that continues to influence parodies, from Count von Count on *Sesame Street* to Count Chocula. While *Dracula* launched Lugosi to fame, he unfortunately became known for playing only similar roles. By the 1940s, he was in supporting roles in films like *The Wolf Man*, or comedic takes on Dracula himself. In the 1950s, he even appeared in low-budget movies directed by Ed Wood just to make ends meet. He became so strongly associated with the character that he was famously buried in his Dracula cape. Despite this typecasting, Lugosi’s success as Dracula was essential to the development of Hollywood horror, and it’s fitting that he’s finally getting the recognition he deserves with a new biopic.

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2025-10-15 03:32