\tSPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This article contains mild spoilers about \u201cNosferatu,\u201d now playing in theaters. \tRobert Eggers\u2018 fourth film \u2014 \u201cNosferatu,\u201d in theaters today via Focus Features \u2014 is a bold, starry reimagining of F. W. Murnau\u2019s 1922 masterful silent film of the same name. Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd star as the gorgeous Ellen Hutter and grotesque vampire Count Orlok, respectively, alongside Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin and Eggers regulars Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson. The gorgeous and sinister tale builds on the dark historical lore of Eggers\u2019 previous films \u2014\u00a02015\u2019s \u201cThe Witch,\u201d 2019\u2019s \u201cThe Lighthouse\u201d and 2022\u2019s \u201cThe Northman\u201d \u2014 and infuses it with drama, desire and an electric erotic undercurrent. Eggers, as funny and self-deprecating in conversation as his films are dark, spoke with Variety about creating a new vision of a film that has influenced him since childhood, his unique partnership with director Chris Columbus and the viral \u201cNosferatu\u201d merch. \t \t \t\tWhy do you think the original film struck you from such a young age?\t \tI was already into vampires and I\u2019d seen the Bela Lugosi movie a few times, and I would be Dracula for Halloween. But \u201cNosferatu\u201d\u2026 In the new versions that have been recently restored, you can see the bald cap on Max Schreck and the grease paint that makes his eyebrows. On the VHS I had when I was a kid, it was made from a degraded 16mm print and you couldn\u2019t see any of that stuff, and he was a real vampire somehow. Because the thing was so degraded, it felt like an unearthed archive of the past, and the atmosphere seemed more haunting. To use a word that I seem to be obsessed with, it was \u201cauthentic.\u201d \t\t\t \t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t \t \t\t \t \t \t\tYou wrote a full novella to help you prepare for making the movie. Is that something that would ever see the light of day?\t \tIt\u2019s written quite poorly because I\u2019m not a novelist. Some of my screenplays aren\u2019t so bad if you\u2019re into reading them. But the screenplay is an unfinished thing to get you to make the film. The novella was also very much a tool to get me to write the screenplay. So no, it sucks. \t \t\tYou\u2019ve said you\u2019re grateful that it took you 10 years to get this film off the ground so that you could direct it at a point in your career where you can tell the story the way you wanted. What do you think you were able to accomplish now in your directorial career that you might not have been able to pull off in your younger days?\t \tIt\u2019s the accumulation of knowledge that helps me get my imagination onto the screen with more specificity. I\u2019ve only made four movies and it\u2019s not such an illustrious career. But I had more control: It was a story and, frankly, an IP and budget that made it so Focus Features was able to give me an incredible amount of creative freedom, and also unparalleled support. So I was put in the incredibly fortunate situation of being able to just make the movie I wanted. \t \t \t\tWas there a specific moment when you knew Lily-Rose could nail the role of Ellen?\t \tI\u2019d met with her because I\u2019d seen some work that she\u2019d done that I thought was quite strong, but she had never carried a film. But as soon as I met with her, I was pretty certain she could do the job because she understood the character. I said to her, \u201cI would like to cast you in this role, but you need to audition anyway. So let\u2019s make sure you nail the audition.\u201d So we prepped a bit for the audition, but she knew what she was doing. She had to do two difficult scenes: The monologue about death at the wedding, and then she had to do some of that big crazy scene at the end of the confrontation with her husband. But it was so untrained \u2014\u00a0the same kind of raw ferocity that the performance in that scene has in the film she brought to the audition, and it was just undeniable how powerful she was going to be. \tI can talk about how great Lily is all day, but when I\u2019m auditioning actors, I want to see people making strong choices and going for it. The movies I\u2019m making demand a lot, so I want to see that you\u2019re hungry enough to go for it. \t \t\tWhen did you realize that Orlok\u2019s look would include a prominent mustache?\t \tSo to try to make a more scary vampire than we\u2019ve had in quite some time, I went back to the folklore. It\u2019s something that I like anyway, but the early folk vampire was written about by people who believed that vampires existed. There was going to be some good stuff there, and the vampire of folklore is a putrid, walking undead corpse. And so the question then became, \u201cWhat does a dead Transylvanian nobleman look like?\u201d That means this complex Hungarian costume with very long sleeves, strange high-heeled shoes and a furry hat. It also means a mustache. No matter what, there\u2019s no way this guy can\u2019t have a mustache. Try to find a Transylvanian person who\u2019s of age who can grow a mustache that doesn\u2019t have a mustache. It\u2019s part of the culture. If you don\u2019t want to bother Googling, think of Vlad the Impaler. Even Bram Stoker had the sense to give Dracula a mustache in the book. \t \t\tAnother visual question: When did the striking final image of the film, with Orlok and Ellen locked in an eternal embrace, come to you as a way to close the story?\t \tEven as I was struggling to figure out the blocking of Orlok\u2019s demise, that final shot was always going to be the final shot. It\u2019s nice to have our own version of the \u201cDeath and the Maiden\u201d motif. I think it looks pretty nice. \t \t[Thinks to himself, laughs] No, that\u2019s a little too demented. \t \t\tI can do demented!\t \tWell, if you look very closely at that shot, Orlok is still bleeding out of his eyes, ears and nose. There are some maggot holes in his back. We also rigged it so that he would be bleeding out of his anus, but it was very comical. When we started rolling, we had to literally put a cork in it. \t \t\t Is there something that you learned about filmmaking while making this movie that stuck with you?\t \tIf you work with thousands of rats, it\u2019s going to be a very smelly situation. As intelligent as they are, they are also incontinent. \t \t\tDid you learn anything about yourself while making this movie?\t \tOne of the coolest things was that the creative producer was Chris Columbus. Obviously, we seem like a strange match. But having one of the masters of orthodox Hollywood storytelling at my side, by the monitor every single day, was so immensely helpful. We make such different films and he was not trying to Chris Columbus-ify \u201cNosferatu\u201d \u2014 he was trying to make this the best Robert Eggers movie it could be. But his thinking would be an antidote at times to me and my cinematographer Jarin Blaschke\u2019s arty-farty inclinations. He was a good safety net to say, \u201cAre you telling the story as clearly as possible at this moment?\u201d Most of that kind of conversation happened in prep when he was looking at the storyboards. If I had it my way, Chris would produce all of my films. Unfortunately, he\u2019s also a director so he has to direct his own movies. [Laughs] But if there\u2019s ever a situation where I don\u2019t have him, Chris\u2019s voice is going to speak loudly to help me check myself. \t \t\tHow did that collaboration come about?\t \tWhen I was finishing \u201cThe Witch,\u201d we ran out of money. We\u2019re doing post-production with Monopoly money, and Chris and his daughter Eleanor\u2019s company Maiden Voyage was initially set up to help out first- and second-time filmmakers. Eleanor was a fan of the script of \u201cThe Witch\u201d and wanted to potentially make the movie. But Chris wasn\u2019t really into it initially, but when they saw a cut of the movie, he changed his mind. And so they helped finish the film, and that\u2019s when I first met Chris, and he\u2019s been a mentor ever since. \t \t\t\t \t \t \t \t \t\t\t \t\t\t \t \t\t\t\t\t(l-r.) Director Robert Eggers, actor Emma Corrin, director of photography Jarin Blaschke and actors Lily-Rose Depp and Aaron Taylor-Johnson on the set of \u201cNosferatu.\u201d Credit: Aidan Monaghan \/ \u00a9 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC \t\t\t\t\t\t\tAidan Monaghan \t\t \t \t\t\t \t \t\tThe film threads in some very erotic scenes while telling its story. How did you decide the role you wanted sexuality to play, as in how much you wanted to depict on screen versus leaving it to the imagination?\t \tOne of the biggest cinematic influences on this film is Jack Clayon\u2019s \u201cThe Innocents,\u201d in which all of this sexual stuff is left to the imagination. And it just burns in your imagination. It\u2019s so powerful, but I\u2019ve seen versions of \u201cThe Turn of the Screw\u201d where they do the sexuality explicitly and it really doesn\u2019t work. So certainly we were taking a chance in bringing that stuff to the forefront. But I think part of what perhaps makes it work the way that it does is that the story is told entirely through the eyes of Ellen, the female protagonist. That is going to allow for greater potential for emotional and psychological complexity because you\u2019re centering around this woman who\u2019s a somnambulist. \t \tSleepwalkers in the 19th century were thought to have one foot in another realm and an understanding of darkness. She has this understanding of this other world, and this other way of thinking that she doesn\u2019t have language for, so she\u2019s isolated. But the pull to it is very strong, and so people consider her melancholic and hysterical, and we can see her fighting within herself. I think having it stem from the realities of a woman who\u2019s a victim of 19th-century society is something that makes it hopefully work. I think also maybe because the vampire is physically repulsive adds another layer where you have the eroticism mixed with the repulsion in a very clear way. \t \t\tSome of the official merch inspired by the film has caught the attention of the internet, including a popcorn bucket shaped like a coffin and a $20,000 life-sized sarcophagus bed. Were you in any discussions about this \u201cNosferatu\u201d gear?\t \tAnything that sucks, I\u2019ve said, \u201cPlease don\u2019t.\u201d I\u2019m not coming up with the ideas, but I think they\u2019re fun. \t \t\tAre you the owner of a sarcophagus bed?\t \tI can\u2019t afford one! [Laughs] \t \t\tLooking ahead, what can you reveal about any upcoming projects?\t \tI\u2019ve written a lot of scripts, I\u2019m writing a couple of scripts. Some things are bigger, some things are smaller. There\u2019s an appeal in working out all these different scales to tell different kinds of stories. Sadly, I don\u2019t have a very large imagination and I keep being attracted to the same kinds of themes and tropes. They\u2019re all Robert Eggers-y, for better or for worse. \t \t\tSo you couldn\u2019t see yourself doing something like a broad modern comedy or something else off-base?\t \tI mean, look: Aside from the fact that it wouldn\u2019t appeal to me, why the fuck would you want me to do that? There are things that I have skills in, so I should probably embrace those and continue to get better at them. Obviously you want to stretch yourself, but like I don\u2019t want to do something I have no business doing. \t \t\tIs there any movement on the Rasputin miniseries that was teased a while back?\t \tI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be on location in Russia anytime soon, unfortunately. \t \t\tYou\u2019ve been so busy finishing \u201cNosferatu,\u201d but have you had a chance to see any horror this year, and if so, what did you enjoy?\t \tI really like \u201cThe Substance.\u201d It had a consistent, clear, specific vision and was very well-executed. As a filmmaker, you can\u2019t help but admire that and champion it. \t \t\t\t \t \t \t \t \t\t\t \t\t\t \t \t\t\t\t\tDirector Robert Eggers on the set of \u201cNosferatu.\u201d Credit: Aidan Monaghan \/ \u00a9 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC \t\t\t\t\t\t\tAidan Monaghan \t\t \t \t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This article contains mild spoilers about \u201cNosferatu,\u201d now playing in theaters. Robert Eggers\u2018 fourth film \u2014 \u201cNosferatu,\u201d in theaters today via Focus Features \u2014 is a bold, starry reimagining of F. W. Murnau\u2019s 1922 masterful silent film of the same name. Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd star as the gorgeous Ellen Hutter and grotesque […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":46657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/ita\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/ita\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/ita\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/ita\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/ita\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/ita\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/ita\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/ita\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/ita\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/ita\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}