Keep calm everyone, it’s (maybe?) happening!
After literal years of speculation, Deadline reported today that we might be closer than ever to confirmation of a Robert Eggers’ adaptation of Nosferatu. According to Deadline, sources have confirmed that Bill Skarsgård (IT, Barbarian) is in talks to star as the titular vampire, while Lily-Rose Depp (Wolf) will co-star.
Rumours of Eggers’ Nosferatu have been circulating since 2015. The project seemingly came close to fruition in 2019, with rumours that the film would star Harry Styles and Anya Taylor-Joy in her third collaboration with Eggers (the other two being The Witch and The Northman). According to Deadline, Taylor-Joy will not feature in Nosferatu as she “couldn’t fit the film into that [her] schedule.”
With regards to the plot, Deadline had this to say:
In the new reimagining, Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Depp) in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire (Skarsgård) who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him. Focus had no comment on the project.
The tale of Nosferatu first hit the big screen in 1922, with F.W. Murnau’s silent German Expressionist film widely considered to be one of the most influential horrors of all time. In 1979, Werner Herzog released a stylistic remake titled Nosferatu the Vampyre starring Klaus Kinski and Isabelle Adjani. In 2000, Eggers’ collaborator Willem Dafoe played Count Orlok by way of Max Shreck in E. Elias Merhige’s metafiction horror Shadow of the Vampire.
Eggers fans have been eagerly awaiting the auteur’s return to the horror genre, after his 2015 ‘good for her’ folk horror The Witch and 2019’s briny and bonkers The Lighthouse. This year, Eggers released The Northman, his Viking saga epic starring Alexander Skarsgård.
Nothing else about Nosferatu is known as of now, but it's never too early to start getting excited for the creepy count to return to our screens.
