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.”
Having been a fan of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 classic since his childhood, Eggers actually directed a version of it for his senior play, which led to a local theatre owner hiring him to “re-stage the play professionally.”
“That’s when I realized this is what I want to be doing,” said Eggers. “‘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.”
Though he wouldn’t give too many details on how he plans to approach the classic, he did note that he wants to build “real 1830s interiors” and also change his approach to the lead character, stating that he can’t “do Max Schreck” again.
While we understand Eggers’ hesitation about remaking Nosferatu as his next project, given that he only has one feature film under his belt, seeing what he did with The Witch gives us confidence that he can do something special with the horror classic.