Sylvester Stallone Is Trying to Make an Edgar Allen Poe Biopic

Its been a busy month for movies, what with all the buzz around a tough-to-call award season . And something important has been lost in the shuffle: Sylvester Stallone has begun working again on a decades-old biopic about the late writer Edgar Allan Poe.

In a short video posted to Instagram earlier this month, Stallone revealed that hes back working on the film script, which he began more than four decades ago.

Its a never-ending journey, and I would hate myself if I dont continue it at least to the best of my ability and try to see it actually come to fruition, Stallone says in the video. To be able to go out there and say, I accomplished it. It may have taken 45 or 50 years, but its done.

Stallone has long wanted to make a film about Poe, the great 19th-century American writer, even though a film about The Raven and Tell-Tale Heart author would seemingly represent a significant change of pace for the Rocky and Rambo star.

I keep telling my producer Avi Lerner, Make Edgar Allan Poe! . He says, Does he have a gun? No, he doesnt have a gun. Can he throw a knife? I say, No, he writes poetry!

Stallone has been opening up more about the project, and in September posted a never-before-seen photo of himself in costume as the macabre writer and poet.

View this post on Instagram The only surviving picture that has never been seen anywhere before The first serious screenplay I ever wrote was about the great writer Edgar Allan Poe, at one time I had aspirations to play him and this was part of the costume design But I realized I wasn't really right for the part , So this is all that remains. Maybe someday I'll direct , who know? A post shared by Sly Stallone (@officialslystallone) on Sep 30, 2017 at 7:20pm PDT

The first serious screenplay I ever wrote was about the great writer Edgar Allan Poe, he wrote in a caption. At one time I had aspirations to play him and this was part of the costume design... But I realized I wasnt really right for the part, so this is all that remains.

Maybe someday Ill direct, he added.

In the new video he posted, he scanned over his desk cluttered with previous drafts of the screenplay and notes, some of which date back to the 1970s.

Thats what Im working on, he said. Its been one of the great challenges of my life, but like Poe used to say, I promise to take life by the throat and I shall not let go until I succeed.'

Yo Poe, he concluded. Keep punching.