NOSFERATU Director Robert Eggers Says He's "Trying to Go Beyond What I’m Capable Of"
Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman) is deep into production on his upcoming remake of the vampire horror classic Nosferatu. This is a passion project for the filmmaker and something he’s been developing for years.
I’m a big fan of the filmmaker’s work, and he has a distinctive directing style, characterized by meticulous attention to detail, historical accuracy, and a penchant for atmospheric storytelling. One of the defining features of Eggers' directing style is his commitment to historical authenticity. He meticulously researches the time periods in which his films are set and strives to recreate them with painstaking detail.
Well, he’s looking to take things to a whole new level with Nosferatu, and in a recent interview with Empire, he says: “I’m trying to go beyond what I’m capable of.” He added:
“As always, it was a difficult shoot. Last night we were doing a scene on a ship with a lot of rain and waves, and the rain deflector, which tries to blow rain out of the lens, was breaking down and fogging. I spent the past several days working only with Russian sailors on a boat. I’m so happy to have made The Northman first and to have learned what I learned. When I think about the production plan of Nosferatu that we had the first time around, I’m sure I would have somehow pulled it out of my butt, but it’s hard not to imagine it being a failure.”
The filmmaker is also teaming up with Willem Dafoe again, and when talking about working with him on the film said: “Willem’s up for anything and he’ll cut his arm off for the scene. He is a f**king pleasure to work with: he was in The Northman, he was in [the upcoming] Nosferatu, I hope I never made a movie without him.”
Dafoe stars in the film alongside Hoult is part of an impressive ensemble cast that includes Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with Ralph Ineson, and Bill Skarsgard as Count Orlock, the film's version of Dracula. The project is currently shooting and it will be distributed by Focus Features.
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.