Nosferatu remake director Robert Eggers jokes about why the movie won't be made, believing those from the original don't want him to make it.
Nosferatu remake director Robert Eggers jokes about why the movie won't be made, believing those from the original don't want him to make it. Eggers rose to stardom with his directorial debut, the period horror film The Witch starring Anya Taylor-Joy as the teen daughter of a Puritan family who find their faith tested when evil forces descend upon them from the nearby woods of their 1630s New England farm. The writer/director would once again strike gold with his second project behind the camera, the psychological horror film The Lighthouse revolving around Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe's lighthouse keepers in 1890s New England who slowly go mad while stranded on the island they're stationed by a massive storm.
Directed by F.W. Murnau, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror served as an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker's iconic novel Dracula and revolved around the titular vampire as he begins preying on the wife of his estate agent upon moving to the German town of Wisborg. Led by Max Schreck as the vampiric Count Orlok, the film is considered a classic of the horror and silent film genres thanks to its lead actor and its artistic direction and production design and has since inspired various remakes and adaptations. One such Nosferatu remake was intended to hail from Robert Eggers, though after nearly seven years of work, it has seemingly been stalled in development hell.
In a recent interview with Bloody Disgusting to discuss his Viking epic The Northman, Robert Eggers opened up about his long-gestating Nosferatu remake. The writer/director jokingly revealed why the film has yet to be made, believing that the ghosts from the original production are trying to tell him to abandon the project. See what Eggers shared below:
"Nosferatu was something I saw pretty young that… changed my life. I’m just starting to think that [F.W.] Murnau doesn’t want me to make it. It feels like that. It just feels like it’s so hard, and I don’t know why. And I think [Werner] Herzog had the right… because of German history and German cinema history, to make it. And maybe the ghosts of Murnau and Albin Grau are telling me… stop barking up that tree. I don’t know. That doesn’t mean that that’s true. I’m just wondering.”
Eggers recently opened up to The New Yorker about why his Nosferatu remake first went on hold, citing star Harry Styles' departure due to scheduling concerns as a key factor in its delay. Though some initially ran with the idea that the former One Direction member and Eternals actor was set to portray the titular vampire, Eggers has since confirmed Styles was set to play Thomas Hutter, the estate agent to Nosferatu and husband of Ellen, the object of the vampire's desire. Eggers has also set The Witch star Anya Taylor-Joy, with whom he recently reunited for The Northman, as another lead in his film, though it remains unclear if, or when, the project will get off the ground.
The writer/director's newest comments regarding the Nosferatu remake may come as a bit of a disappointment to fans of Eggers as it seems he may be losing faith in the potential for it to get off the ground. That being said, with Eggers having also recently stated the horror film will forever be "percolating" as it is an "incredibly important film" for him and even expressed a desire to reunite with Willem Dafoe for the project, the door does seem to still be open for him to get behind the camera for the remake. In the meantime, audiences can look forward to Eggers' next grand vision as The Northman hits theaters this week.
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