Willem Dafoe to reunite with Robert Eggers for ‘Nosferatu’
Willem Dafoe and Robert Eggers are due for a cinematic reunion, with the sparkling American creatives reported to be collaborating on the forthcoming remake of F. W. Murnau’s 1922 classic, Nosferatu.
Joining Lily Rose-Depp, Bill Skarsgard and Nicholas Hoult, Dafoe will add to the ensemble, as reported by Deadline, collaborating with Eggers for the third time following his work on 2019s The Lighthouse and 2022s The Northman. Taking a large amount of inspiration from the 1922 original, Eggers’ tale will follow a young woman (Depp) in 19th-century Germany who becomes the target of an ancient Transylvanian vampire (Skarsgard).
Significantly, the role will be a journey to the past for Dafoe, who starred as the blood-sucking villain in Shadow of the Vampire, a strange historical drama that told the story of the making of Murnau’s Nosferatu and Max Schreck’s extraordinary dedication to his character. Also starring John Malkovich, Udo Kier, Cary Elwes and Eddie Izzard, the film divided critics and slipped under the radar upon its release at the turn of the new millennium.
In conversation with Rotten Tomatoes, Eggers discusses his love of Nosferatu and the German filmmaker F. W. Murnau, stating: “He’s responsible for some of the best images in cinema of all time, from Nosferatu to Faust to Sunset. His work was so influential that filmmakers generations later can be referencing Murnau without knowing it”. While Murnau made several classic films, it is Nosferatu that Eggers holds so dear.
“There are horror movies before it, obviously — Nosferatu invents horror movies. The editing of the parallel story together in some ways invents cinema,” Eggers gushes, heralding the film for sparking the cultural obsession with cinema’s most terrifying genre.
The 1922 original still haunts audiences to this very day, with Eggers being the perfect filmmaker to update the chilling tale.
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