Robert Eggers has thrust a stake into the heart of our hopes and dreams, as he admitted his Nosferatu movie isn’t happening “at the moment” in a recent interview. Eggers, whose latest movie The Northman is receiving critical acclaim, was supposed to be starting work on resurrecting the classic vampire movie next, but sadly, those plans seem to have been snuffed out.
After finding success with the independent film studio A24, on the brilliant horror movies The Witch, and The Lighthouse, Eggers had the world at his feet. Not surprisingly, Universal offered him a hefty budget to bring to life the Norse mythology of Prince Amleth, in the epic, historical action movie The Northman.
Unfortunately, while critics have been loving his latest movie, the box-office returns aren’t looking quite as positive, with a reported opening weekend of just $3.5 million worldwide. In a recent interview with SlashFilm to promote The Northman, Eggers seemed to be excited about his next project, explaining that his version of Nosferatu, originally a 1922 silent movie, would hopefully star Willem Dafoe and Anya Taylor-Joy.
Now, though, Eggers has cast doubts on the project. In an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast, Eggers sounds apprehensive about the state of Nosferatu, explaining that it’s not happening “at the moment.”
The reasons for this backtracking are unclear at the moment, with numerous different causes potentially behind the apparent U-turn. It could be due to the box-office performance of The Northman as we mentioned previously, which would be a sad indictment for studios backing exciting filmmakers.
The more likely motive for Eggers putting a halt to the development of the production could be due to the fact that he no longer has his star. Harry Styles recently pulled out of the Nosferatu remake.
So incredibly dumb of studios to see the failure of MORBIUS as audiences not wanting vampire movies instead of no one liking Jared Leto.
— EM (@someguy283) April 20, 2022
Our guess is Morbius is to blame. And the majority of Twitter seems to agree with us. The bad news about Nosferatu comes on the back of the Karyn Kasuma Dracula movie also getting cancelled. Damn you, Jared Leto!