Willem Dafoe joins Robert Egger’s Nosferatu

Robert Eggers has been set on remaking Nosferatu for some time now and by the director’s own admission, it’s been a bumpy road. At one point, before last year’s release of The Northman, Eggers found himself publicly wondering if he was being cursed by the ghost of FW Murnau, the original film’s director.

At one point, the film was set to feature Harry Styles and Anya Taylor-Joy, before that incarnation of the project fell through and according to Eggers, that wasn’t the first time that everything had come together, only for it to fall apart. Styles left the project due to scheduling conflicts and Taylor-Joy’s increasingly packed slate meant that she wouldn’t return to work with the filmmaker following turns in The Witch and The Northman.

Speaking of the latter, The Northman saw Eggers work with a larger studio budget, earning a solid commercial performance and lots of critical praise. That success seems to have been the driving force in getting Nosferatu up and running again, this time with Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult and Bill Skarsgard headlining.

Now it has been announced that Eggers has returned to his previous work for further casting with the announcement that Willem Dafoe is likely joining the project. Dafoe previously worked with Eggers on The Lighthouse and also has experience with Nosferatu itself: he played the vampiric creature in 2000’s Shadow Of A Vampire which was dark and comedic take on the production of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film.

The original classic horror movie tells the tale of Count Orlok, as he preys on the wife of the estate agent sent to his castle. The remake is set to tell ‘a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.’

There is no release date for Nosferatu but we’ll keep you updated as we hear more.

Deadline