A project Robert Eggers has been talking about since his debut feature The Witch, and on his mind well before that, I never thought his take on Nosferatu would see the light of day. Well, I’m delighted to be wrong as Focus Features, reteaming after The Northman, announced today that production has commenced on the film in Prague.
After many catching switch-ups, the cast now features Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Emma Corrin, Simon McBurney, and, of course, Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson. In a new addition, the ensemble has also expanded to include Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The film is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th-century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.
“I saw a picture of Max Schreck as Count Orlok in a book in my elementary school and I lost my mind,” Eggers told IndieWire back in 2016. “Then, when I was 17, I directed the senior play [of] Nosferatu … It was very expressionist, it was much more expressionist than the film is.” He added, “Nosferatu has a very close, magical connection for me. Though if I were to make the movie 17-year-old Rob was going to make of Nosferatu, it would have been something between like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Sin City, whereas this is going to be the same approach as The Witch, where 1830s Biedermeier Baltic Germany needs to be articulated in a way that seems real.”
Expect a 2024 release for Nosferatu.