Sylvester Stallone Still Wants To Make An Edgar Allan Poe Movie

Sylvester Stallone may be primarily known for action movies, but his long-running dream project has been to make a movie about writer Edgar Allan Poe. Yes, really. Stallone even wrote a script for the potential movie back in the '70s, and wanted to play Poe himself. It never came to pass. But Stallone has never said "nevermore" to this idea, and the actor, writer and filmmaker recently revealed he still hopes to get the movie made. Stallone probably won't be playing Poe now that he's older (although that would be pretty funny), but he did share a photo of himself dressed as Poe back when he first wrote the script. More on the Sylvester Stallone Edgar Allan Poe movie below.

"It's a long road to reach your goals but it's definitely worth the journey." So says Sylvester Stallone in the Instagram post above. That goal is his long-gestating Edgar Allan Poe movie, telling the story of the macabre author and poet who still inspires goth kids everywhere. Stallone has been working on this script, off and on, since the 1970s, and he doesn't want to throw in the towel. "It's a never-ending journey, and I would hate myself if I don't continue it at least to the best of my ability and try to see it, actually, come to fruition," he says in the Instagram video (via GeekTyrant). "To be able to go out there and say, 'I accomplished it. It may have taken 45 years-50 years, but it's done.' Anyway. That's what I'm working on. It's been one of the great challenges of my life."

Back in 2017, Stallone shared an old photo of himself as Poe. Check it out:

In the post, he writes:

"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?"

I wouldn't have pegged Stallone as an Edgar Allan Poe fan, but I suppose he's one of those writers who contains multitudes. One day, he's writing Cobra, a movie about a cop who murders criminals because he doesn't care about legal ramifications. Another day, he's writing the story of the master of mystery and the macabre.

There have been a few Poe films in the past. John Cusack played the writer in the absolutely terrible The Raven, Ben Chaplin took on the role in Francis Ford Coppola's bizarre Twixt, and Jeffrey Combs gave perhaps the best performance yet as the doomed author in the Masters of Horror episode "The Black Cat."