Stallone, to direct a film on Edgar Allan Poe

Sylvester Stallone, who previously directed the second, third and fourth “Rocky” films, and Staying Alive, is going to be behind the camera again with the movie Poe.

The announcement came from Variety that, he’s about to direct a film from a screenplay he’s written about none other than Edgar Allan Poe.

Poet Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his eerie poem “The Raven” which made the word ‘nevermore’ seem cool. He is considered the master of gothic horror tales in the 1800’s.

Variety says Nu Image/Millennium Films will finance, produce and distribute the film.

Robert Downey Jr. is Stallone’s choice for the leading role.

Poe will begin filming this fall in Europe.

Considered the granddaddy of the Gothic horror tale, Poe’s life is rich with its own eerie details. He suffered from madness, depression and drugs, and was mysteriously found dead in a gutter in 1849.

Stallone’s screenplay has been completed since 2002, but final details came together this past week. Recently, he worked as executive producer on the boxing reality show “The Contender”, which cost over $2 million an episode to create, but barely scraped together an audience. Perhaps a change of pace would do him well.