Aaron Taylor-Johnson Joins Director Robert Eggers' NOSFERATU

Director Robert Eggers has added Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Bullett Train) to the ensemble cast of his highly-anticipated Nosferatu movie.

He joins Lily Rose-Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Willem Defoe, and Emma Corrin in the movie. In this new reimagining, Nosferatu tells the haunting gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Depp) in 19th-century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire (Skarsgard) who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.

This film is a passion project for Eggers. He also has a long interesting history with the film because when he was in high school, he produced a remake of it for his senior-year project. When talking about that, he said:

“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. It was ‘Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ style [German Expressionistic].”

He went on to talk about what he would have done with the film when he was 17, and what he’s looking to do with the recent film, saying:

“That’s when I realized this is what I want to be doing. ‘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.”

F.W. Murnau is the director of the original 1922, while German filmmaker Werner Herzog notably directed his own version of the classic tale back in 1979.

The Focus Features project is set to shoot on locations in Europe next month. The movie is being produced by Jeff Robinson, John Graham, Eggers, Chris Columbus and Eleanor Columbus.

Taylor-Johnson will next be seen in Marvel’s Kraven the Hunter. He also recently wrapped production on the upcoming action-adventure film The Fall Guy, reteaming with director David Leitch.