From the director who brought audiences The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman comes Nosferatu.
Robert Eggers has reimagined F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film to create a modern-day take on Nosferatu, which, according to the official logline, tells the "gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her."
Eggers told the Los Angeles Times that he needed actors with "depth," so he cast Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin and Nicholas Hoult, to name a few.
"[Lily-Rose Depp] really understood the script. She’s seen every Dracula movie ever made, even the art-house ones," he said. "After her audition, everyone, including the videographer, who shouldn’t care, was in tears."
From the director's storied history with the terrifying tale to the film's premiere date, here's everything to know about Eggers' Nosferatu 2024 remake.
What isNosferatuabout?
Set in the 1800s, Nosferatu follows real estate salesman Thomas Hutter (Hoult), who is tasked with finding a new residence for wealthy Transylvanian Count Orlok (Skarsgård). While trying to fulfill the ask, Hutter learns that Orlok, a vampire, is infatuated with his wife, Ellen Hutter (Depp), and everyone's dynamics become complicated.
IsNosferatua remake?
Yes, Egger's Nosferatu is a remake of Murnau’s 1922 silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, which was originally inspired by Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula.
The 2024 version of Nosferatu came to be over 100 years after a failed attempt to banish the original movie due to copyrights.
When the 1922 version of Nosferatu debuted, Stoker's wife, Florence, tried to sue the production company because its plot was too similar to Dracula, according to The New York Times. That said, the production company was out of money because it used its resources for promotional purposes, and instead, a German judge ordered copies of the projects to be destroyed.
While the newspaper reported that the order was carried through in Germany, a reel of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror still made its way to the United States, where it became popular among cinema lovers.
Murnau's controversial film has now been remade twice — once in 1979 by Werner Herzog (Nosferatu the Vampyre) and most recently by Eggers. Meanwhile, in 2000, E. Elias Merhige released Shadow of the Vampire, a fictional retelling of the making of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.
Egger's reimagination of Nosferatu doesn't stray far from the original film's storyline. Still, in conversation with the Los Angeles Times, the director revealed that he took the movie's themes of "sex and death" up a notch.
When willNosferatupremiere?
Nosferatu will be released in theaters on Dec. 25 (Christmas Day).
Who is in the cast ofNosferatu?
Nosferatu features a star-studded cast: Depp, Skarsgård, Dafoe, Corrin, Hoult and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
While speaking to Total Film, Eggers told the outlet that Skarsgård will look unrecognizable to fans as Count Orlok. The actor "lost a tremendous amount of weight" for the role and would spend roughly six hours in the hair and makeup chair to fully transform into a blood-thirsty vampire.
"You can’t detect any Bill here. He worked with an opera coach to lower his voice an octave. I think people are going to think we treated it digitally, but that’s his performance," Eggers added.
Corrin, who plays Anna Harding, went through a different type of torment on set. During an interview with Deadline ahead of the title's release, they recalled filming with rats.
"30 of them were on my bare chest," Corrin shared. "The smell is something that you can’t imagine. And the incontinence was a thing that I really didn’t expect, but was terrible. ... It was grim."
As for Hoult, he told PEOPLE in November 2022 that he was "excited about being really pushed" by Nosferatu's director. Eggers later admitted to the Los Angeles Times that his sets are notorious for being "fairly serious and very demanding."
Is there a trailer forNosferatu?
Focus Features released the first official trailer for Nosferatu in June 2024, followed by a second trailer in September.
Throughout the clips, Depp's character, Ellen, narrates how her feelings for Nosferatu evolve and how those around her react to his presence.
However, neither trailer offers a sneak peek at Skarsgård's transformation into Count Orlok — and that's on purpose.
"That hopefully increases the anticipation of the reveal. We all know our imaginations are always stronger than what the filmmaker can provide," Eggers told Vanity Fair. "It was a challenge for me to go against my instincts in showing the monster."
Who is directingNosferatu?
Director Robert Eggers watched F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu for the first time when he was 9. The film made such an impression on him that Eggers decided to bring the story to the stage in play form as a high school senior.
"It was such a magical opportunity, it totally changed my life. I thought maybe I could be a director,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
When asked what his younger self would think of him bringing Nosferatu to the big screen, Eggers said, "He would think it was pretty cool. I thought I’d be making movies as a kid, but not like this.”
Read the original article on People
