Bill Skarsgård and Lily-Rose Depp to star in Robert Eggers’ long-awaited Nosferatu remake
Eggers, your biggest vampiric dreams are about to come true!
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After years of trying to bring his remake to life, The Northman’s Robert Eggers finally has the backing needed to create his own version of Nosferatu. Officially in production with Focus Features, the film will star It’s Bill Skarsgård and The Idol’s Lily-Rose Depp.
Per Deadline’s description, in the 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.”
Nosferatu has been on Eggers’ docket for a while now, with several failed attempts to get the project going. After directing The Lighthouse, Eggers set out to craft a remake of the classic film then, with the rumor mill throwing names like Harry Styles out for the lead role. Anya Taylor-Joy was originally going to join the director once more for Nosferatu, but scheduling conflicts reportedly opened up the space for Depp.
“It’s fallen apart twice. I’ve been trying to get the word out because the word did carry that Harry Styles was going to be in the movie,” Eggers previously told IndieWire. “And I just wonder if Murnau’s ghost is telling me, like, you should stop.”
Friedrich Murnau, of course, directed the original 1922 silent film (itself a bootleg riff on Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel), with Max Schreck playing the infamous Count Orlok. The story has remained relatively untouched, aside from Werner Herzog’s remake featuring Klaus Kinski as Count Dracula in 1979, which Eggers has his own thoughts on.
“Herzog’s movie—for me, and I love Herzog, he’s one of my favorite directors—but I do feel like it is uneven,” Eggers said. “Love the score, love [Isabelle] Adjani, love [Klaus] Kinski, but, like front-lit night scenes, what? That’s just Herzog doing Herzog. But the best sequence of that movie, for me, is getting to the castle with Das Rheingold, and I don’t even know if it makes sense in the film even though it’s awesome. But at the same time because of German history and German cinema history, it was his right to do that film, and he needed to do that film. I don’t know. Maybe Murnau’s telling me I don’t have the right.”
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“But at the same time because of German history and German cinema history, it was [Herzog’s] right to do that film, and he needed to do that film. I don’t know. Maybe Murnau’s telling me I don’t have the right.”Nosferatu ripped off an Irish author’s story that was largely based in England and featured a Dutch hero and a Transylvanian monster based (maybe, sort of, a little bit) on a Wallachian nobleman. Murnau’s ghost can get out of here with that nationalistic attitude.
Murnau dropped the Dutchman from his adaptation.
He also didn’t set any part of it England. My (facetious) point was that it’s kind of silly to think of the story of Nosferatu as the moral property of the German folk when it was at its core a work of plagiarism and appropriation.
This is the sharpest, most informed comment I’ve seen on this site in months, bravo.
Skarsgard is an upgrade over Styles, but Depp is a downgrade from Taylor-Joy.
Eggers stressed when Styles left that he was never intended to play Count Orlock. Presumably he was playing Murnau’s Jonathan Harker stand-in.
Do we know who’s playing Jonathan now?
taylor-joy is overhyped
Florence Pugh appears to be a better actress (among blondes with English accents who’ve recently done movies about murderous Nordic cultures), but Taylor-Joy is well-suited to this. There’s something uncanny about her (perhaps her eyes being so wide apart contributes) that works well in horror.
Yes, that’s why she was so great in Thoroughbreds.
Thoroughbreds is the last movie I bought on physical media. Olivia Cooke is the standout there, but that’s partly because she’s got the more externalizing character.
Came here to see and say this.
I know it’s a classic and all but the ending of Nosferatu always bugged me. Dude has been alive for hundreds of years and he dies because a pretty lady made him forget the sunrise? Huh? Guess it just goes to show, even after millennia have passed, men still thinking with their, um, teeth.
The only Lily-Rose Depp project I’m waiting on starts with “M” & ends with “oose Jaws” & it’s “Moose Jaws.”
Pointless without Taylor-Joy. Don’t agree with his opinion on Herzog’s version either.
Definitely less appealing with Depp II, and ATJ really is special. But I’ll watch anything from Eggers at this point, and I’ve been looking forward to this long enough that I’d love it to finally get made. I love Herzog and his Nosferatu, but I also agree with Eggers’ take. Which doesn’t mean either of us are correct.
It’s probably my least favorite Herzog/Kinski movie, even though the cinematography is gorgeous at points.
This is not a good enough cast. Skarsgard was boring in IT, he didn’t really bring anything to the part except a blankness. Herzog’s film is excellent, and I would encourage everybody to watch both the english and the german language versions.
I never saw IT, but Skarsgard was great in Castle Rock, so I think there’s potential there.
He was also very good in Barbarian.
If you want to see him play someone very different, in the horror-comedy Villains he’s one of the leads alongside Maika Monroe.
Ehh…*love* Eggers’ work, but not a huge fan of the Depp. We shall see…Also, just taking the chance to mention that it’s now making me re-log into any individual Kinja site every 12 hours…fucking ridiculous.
I meant to type “the Depp child”. Oh well.
I was logged out at the front page, then when I went to the url for my notifications I was already logged in without me needing to do anything, then when I clicked the link to a response I was logged out again and had to sign in. Weird.
That Nosferatu score Popol Vuh did is fucking glorious music, all the various albums with bits of it are fantastic listening and add a nice unnerving atmosphere to whatever it is you’re up to. Go check it out, people!
Can’t wait to see what Eggers does with it, he’s an exciting filmmaker and I look forward to the next few decades of his work.