Downey wants Poe?

After a rough phase where his career trajectory took a detour to the video shelves, Sylvester Stallone got back on track and managed to bring some pet projects to the screen.

But although Rocky and Rambo had a hand or two in that success (not to mention the cadre of facebreakers assembled for THE EXPENDABLES), his long-planned biopic about influential macabre author Edgar Allen Poe remains laying face down in the Rue Morgue. Now that he’s got more pull, will the raven no longer say “Nevermore?”

Robert Downey Jr. seems to hope so. Stallone wanted the actor for the role even before Downey’s glorious resurgence, and the interest remains. As Downey tells Metro: “Stallone wrote a great script that he wants to direct about Edgar Allen Poe,” mentioning it’s the character he most wants to take on (Tony Stark excluded, one assumes). You’d think their combined power could get this sucker bankrolled now.

Stallone’s film about the gifted wordsmith (“The Raven”, “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, just to name a few examples) will focus on the scribe’s darker days when he tipped the bottle a fair bit (like any good creator of the time) and went a little loony.

Given his own experiences, Downey would probably relate to the infamously moody and hard-living writer (except for the marriage to his 13-year-old cousin), and it could provide an opportunity to explore themes of addiction and depression that may not make it into the IRON MAN franchise.