>Well, to be more precise, it was likely "an outright invention" of the
>author who wrote the novel on which the film "Shadow of the Vampire" is
>based, since it was a book first. (can't recall his name right now)

Maybe you're thinking of Jim Shepard's recent novel "Nosferatu."  I haven't
read it but understand that it's a non-fantastic story about Murnau told
partly through diary entries.  "Shadow of the Vampire" is credited only to
Steven Katz so there doesn't seem to be any connection between these two.
Katz wrote plays before; "Shadow" was his first script and doesn't appear
to have been based on anything else.  (See
http://www.nyscreenwriter.com/article69.htm and
http://www.onmilwaukee.com/articles/vampirekatz.html)

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