Logline

In the shadow of Lord Byron’s dangerous charisma, young physician John Polidori pursues literary immortality, channelling heartbreak and humiliation into The Vampyre, the first modern vampire story, even as the rivalry that inspired it destroys him.

Synopsis

Set against the charged atmosphere of the “Year Without a Summer,” Diodati follows John Polidori as he enters Lord Byron’s inner circle and travels across Europe in pursuit of artistic legitimacy and a life unbound by repression. At the Villa Diodati, alongside Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Godwin, intellectual ambition collides with ego, desire, and dangerous intimacy. As Byron’s psychological dominance intensifies and Polidori’s unspoken longing deepens into jealousy and humiliation, the legendary ghost-story challenge becomes the crucible in which The Vampyre is born, a tale forged from seduction, rivalry, and emotional devastation. What emerges is not only the genesis of a genre, but the unraveling of a brilliant young man undone by the love he cannot name.

Genre: prestige historical Gothic feature film

Status: in development | currently being packaged

Enquires: mark@impactfilmgroup.com

About Diodati