Sylvester Stallone has spent decades being criticized for his acting ability, but let’s not forget that he’s got two Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe win under his belt. On top of that, he’s also an Oscar-nommed writer and experienced director that’s helmed eight movies to have found admittedly varying degrees of critical and commercial success.
The action genre may be his bread and butter, but for almost half a century Sly has been toying with the idea of writing and directing an Edgar Allan Poe biopic. He originally wanted to play the lead role himself, but that ship sailed a long time ago for the 75 year-old. As recently as 2019, Stallone took to social media and confirmed he was still developing the project, but time appears to be running out.
Having focused his attentions on remaining behind the camera, the Rocky and Rambo legend named Robert Downey Jr. as his preferred choice to embody Poe, and the Iron Man star was receptive to the idea. At least, he was back in 2006 and 2009, but it’s been a long time since we heard any concrete updates. RDJ has probably aged out of the part now, too, with Poe dying at 40 and the MCU favorite turning 56 earlier this year.
The conspiracy theories surrounding the writer’s death continue to generate discussion and debate to this day, but as of yet we haven’t seen Hollywood deliver anything that comes close to being named as the definitive spin on his life story. Unfortunately, Sylvester Stallone and Robert Downey Jr. most likely won’t be the ones to do it, either.
