Anya Taylor-Joy Reteaming With The Witch Director For Nosferatu Remake

After causing quite a stir with his horror film The Witch, which was divisive, to say the least, director Robert Eggers is staying firmly in the genre which put him on the map. That’s because he’s set to remake the classic horror flick Nosferatu. He’s been attached to it for a while now, actually, but it was only recently that he confirmed he’d be doing it as his next project.

“[It’s shocking] to me,” Eggers said. “It feels ugly and blasphemous and egomaniacal and disgusting for a filmmaker in my place to do Nosferatu next. I was really planning on waiting a while, but that’s how fate shook out.”

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much progress on the pic in a while now, but tonight, we’ve got a pretty big update, as we’re learning that the director will be reteaming with Anya Taylor-Joy after working together on The Witch. It’s unknown who she’s playing, but given that the actress is one of the hottest upcoming talents in Hollywood at the moment, her involvement can only be a good thing.

As for the film itself, well, it’s no secret that vampires have been a staple of big screen horror lately, between action-oriented reimaginings of the Count Dracula legend (Dracula Untold) and innovative, genre-blending stories about bloodsuckers (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Only Lovers Left Alive, What We Do in the Shadows). With remakes as bankable as ever, it makes depressing sense that an old relic like Nosferatu would get a dusting-off sooner or later.

Luckily, it could be worse – Eggers drew particular praise for creating a wholly eerie atmosphere on The Witch, which was set in mid-17th-century New England. Such a knack will come in very handy if he’s to have any hope of doing right by the haunting work Murnau did on the original Nosferatu.

Still, it’s more than a little frustrating that so much of horror these days involves putting slight spins on already-existing material. The Poltergeist remake recently demonstrated the pitfalls of being too faithful to the source material and therefore forgetting to showcase any sort of distinctive identity, while others like 2011’s The Thing just completely missed the point of what made the original such a classic.

Eggers is going to have to toe the line there with deference, intelligences and at least a few of his own ideas if he’s to succeed in rebooting an age-old masterpiece like Nosferatu. But even if he does, it’s a little dismaying to see the name being used as a selling point when there are certainly still opportunities to create interesting and original vampire stories.