A chronicle of the legendary American writer’s life, from his famous works and bouts with madness and depression, to his mysterious death in 1849.

Know who’s writing and directing it? Sylvester Stallone.

Apparently, he’s a long-time fan:

:I was introduced to Poe by accident. I was basically broke and freezing in New York in January of 1970 and decided to seek some shelter and heat in the New York Public Library, which is a citadel of extraordinary books. I struck up a conversation with a guard, who said I should go to the basement and check out the archives. I did, and seeing the actual writings of Poe really caught my imagination, because the way he would write would be to split the page down the middle and glue it in one long strip so he could get more words on the page. Everything about him was unique, so I thought he represented the heart and soul of what it’s like to be a struggling artist who is ahead of his time.

I think Stallone gets a bad reputation — even if it’s a reputation owed, admittedly, to a long string of terrible movies. I think he’s an intelligent guy and a decent, if not exactly versatile, actor. But he wouldn’t have been the first person I’d have thought of to write and direct the life story of Edgar Allen Poe.