Director Robert Eggers has detailed how difficult the Nosferatu shoot has been.
Eggers has directed many successful films. Starting his career with the strong directorial debut The Witch, a folk horror movie. He would go on to direct films like the horror movie The Lighthouse and 2022’s epic action thriller The Northman. His next movie is a remake of the 1922 silent film Nosferatu.
“I’m trying to go beyond what I’m capable of,” Eggers told Empire. “As always, it was a difficult shoot. Last night we were doing a scene on a ship with a lot of rain and waves, and the rain deflector, which tries to blow rain out of the lens, was breaking down and fogging.” It was first announced he would direct this film in July 2015, but he ended up delaying this film to direct The Lighthouse and The Northman first.
“I’m so happy to have made The Northman first and to have learned what I learned,” he says. “When I think about the production plan of Nosferatu that we had the first time around, I’m sure I would have somehow pulled it out of my butt, but it’s hard not to imagine it being a failure.”
Eggers will reunite with frequent collaborator Willem Dafoe on this project. “Willem’s up for anything and he’ll cut his arm off for the scene,” the director says while reflecting on The Lighthouse. “He is a fucking pleasure to work with: he was in The Northman, he was in [the upcoming] Nosferatu, I hope I never made a movie without him.”
Who is in the Nosferatu cast?
The cast includes Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok, Nicholas Hoult as Thomas Hutter, Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Friedrich Harding, Emma Corrin as Anna Harding, Willem Dafoe as Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz, Simon McBurney as Herr Knock, and Ralph Ineson as Dr. Wilhelm Sievers.