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Robert Eggers Thought His Horror ‘Christmas Movie’ Might Never Happen

December 23, 2024

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In Robert Eggers‘ mind, “Nosferatu” would have hit the big screen before “The Lighthouse.” It would have shot before “The Northman.” In his dreams, it was his follow-up film to his art-house breakout “The Witch.” A decade later, it’s lastly arriving in theaters, and to crucial acclaim, no much less.

“It’s exciting. I mean, obviously, because the movie fell apart several times over the past 10 years, I had to mourn it and move on a couple of times and come to terms with the fact that it probably would never happen,” Eggers says. “So when it finally did happen, it gives you a ton of energy, and in fact, I kind of went into this with the same kind of jaded enthusiasm as I did my first feature because it’s been something that I’ve been thinking about for so long.”

A direct adaptation of Henrik Galeen‘s script for director F.W. Munau’s authentic 1922 silent movie traditional, Eggers has enlisted an unbelievable artistic crew to assist trend his interpretation of the Dracula mythos. He’s additionally assisted by a stellar solid, together with Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hault, Emma Corrin, Willam Dafoe, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, free from the senseless ab-highlighting of his final launch.

During an interview earlier this month, Eggers mirrored on the lengthy highway to get “Nosferatu” greenlit, why Depp was the right actress to painting Ellen, why he didn’t give it a second thought to Skarsgård because the Dracula in query, Count Orlock, why the spooky thriller is formally a Christmas film past its launch date, and far more.

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You labored on this undertaking for nearly 10 years. Is it onerous to have a undertaking type of bottled up for thus lengthy after which lastly have get the go-ahead to let unleash it?

Robert Eggers: It’s an amazing feeling. It’s thrilling. I imply, clearly, as a result of the film fell aside a number of occasions over the previous 10 years, I needed to mourn it and transfer on a few occasions and are available to phrases with the truth that it most likely would by no means occur. So when it lastly did occur, it offers you a ton of power, and actually, I type of went into this with the identical type of jaded enthusiasm as I did my first characteristic as a result of it’s been one thing that I’ve been fascinated by for thus lengthy.

How completely different is what we see on the display as we speak from what your authentic imaginative and prescient was 10 years in the past?

Not very completely different. When I completed the primary draft 9 and a half years in the past, no matter it’s, it hasn’t actually modified a lot since then. It’s gotten a honed, but it surely hasn’t modified a hell of quite a bit.

Did you continue to discuss with the storyboards or designs you initially conceived?

The lookbooks that I made for the costumes and, the costume division and, the artwork division, and total temper boards of your complete movie. Those got here from the early model, and so did a digital portray that I did of Orlock and his look and his costume, which have been, after all, additional developed by David White, the prosthetics designer, and Linda Muir, the costume designer. But these type of massive Bible of the look of the movie did type of come from 10 years in the past, and a number of the photographs jar and I’ve been fascinated by for that lengthy, however we designed a lot of the photographs in my kitchen in Prague.

Now that the film’s completed, do you will have a favourite shot? Is there one picture within the film that you simply simply adore?

I do like our type of homage to the Todd Browning movie with the carriage going up the mountainside and the fortress. It’s a pleasant fairy story picture.

What about Lily made you need to solid her on this position?

I imply, I feel whenever you see the movie, there’s no query that she was the correct particular person for the position. When I met her, I actually preferred her; and she or he actually understood the character, and she or he had a variety of depth and an amazing type of sensitivity. And then, when she did her audition, it was simply as fierce and uncooked because the efficiency she offers within the movie. But she’s additionally an extremely onerous employee. I imply, she needed to work with the dialect coach for months and months forward of her arriving to Prague as a result of she needed it to be a non-issue as a result of she knew that she had so many different challenges with this position, and she or he labored extremely onerous with the choreographer to do all of the bodywork. It’s all her. It’s not CG-enhanced. There’s no wire work. I imply, it’s an amazing efficiency.

I really feel like one other nice efficiency that type of has not gotten the find it irresistible deserves is Nicholas’s work as Thomas. He’s accomplished nice issues prior to now, however did he shock you in any respect with the depth of his efficiency?

No, I imply it wanted to be there, and so it didn’t shock me as a result of it was what was wanted to serve the story. But yeah, Nick does give an incredible efficiency, and I imply, it’s simply a variety of actors have been involved about being overshadowed by whoever performed the vampire and whoever performed Ellen and didn’t like the thought of taking part in the damsel in misery, which oftentimes Nicholas’s half is. But Nick was excited by the problem of taking part in this position, he’s a extremely good particular person and is attempting to do the correct factor, however he makes a variety of dangerous choices and learns his classes too late. And he does, he performs the position with such conviction. I discover it very, very transferring.

Bill has already performed a significant horror icon earlier than. Did that offer you pause in any respect earlier than casting him?

I imply, I like Universal and Hammer horror films and the place Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and Boris Karloff and Lago and earlier than them in silent, Lon Cheney and Conrad Veidt, and there have been actors who did these sorts of roles and do these sorts of roles effectively. So, no could be the reply. Also, this position is so completely different from Pennywise.

Oh, yeah. Of course.

Plus you possibly can see Bill in Pennywise, however you possibly can’t see Bill in Orlock.

Speaking of that it appeared as if you waited so long as doable to point out the entire look of Orlock. He’s very shadowed, particularly at the start. How a lot thought went into that by way of the way you needed to disclose him to the viewers?

Well, I feel in the event you have been a lifeless Transylvanian nobleman and seemed like a putrid corpse, you most likely, in the event you invited somebody into your home and also you didn’t need them to know that you simply have been rotting and coated in maggots, you’d most likely keep as far-off from them as you may.

True. Considering the movies you’ve made in your profession to date, was this essentially the most difficult? From a scale side was it more difficult than even “The Northman?”

It was extra and fewer difficult. It was much less difficult in the truth that the Northman was such a studying expertise, and it was the place I realized easy methods to work on a movie of this sort of scale, however clearly, it’s important to push your self additional as somebody who’s doing artistic work to get higher. So there have been issues that have been harder, however you’re at all times attempting to stretch your self and transcend what you’re able to in any other case, what’s the purpose?

You’ve now made these large epic initiatives in a method that they really feel epic in what’s on display, is that the route you need to maintain transferring on? Do you need to make one thing smaller?

It completely depends upon what will get greenlit. It’s a bizarre, unsure market, and I’ve a few scripts which can be actually massive, and I’ve a pair scripts which can be actually small, however the small ones have completely different sorts of challenges that I’ve not explored earlier than, despite the fact that there are particular themes and tropes that I clearly appear to be obsessive about.

I noticed a quote the place you stated that you simply thought it was a variety of hubris for you proper after “The Witch” to attempt to sort out this, however what about this materials made you type of enthusiastic about it?

I imply, it’s onerous to say precisely why I’m so obsessive about “Nosferatu,” but it surely’s not sufficient to be obsessive about one thing and love one thing and be obsessed with one thing. There does must be a cause. And after I type of thought that it may be far more attention-grabbing to make the central protagonist be the feminine protagonist, and that might doubtlessly enable for the movie to be extra emotionally and psychologically complicated, that excited me as a cause to truly make the movie. Again.

I do know you’ve seen the movie irrespective of a whole lot of occasions within the modifying room, however have you ever sat by it a bunch of occasions with an viewers but? Have you seen how they’ve reacted to it?

Yeah, I used to be coerced into watching the movie once more on the Berlin premiere, and it was satisfying to observe it with an viewers.

Did their response at any level shock you?

When we have been doing the take a look at screenings in Pasadena, one of many largest laughs was Ralph Einstein taking part in Dr. Seavers, saying, “I’ll administer more ether” or one thing like that, attempting to get Lily-Rose Depp’s character to cease moaning. That stunned me.

This is one thing of an unconventional Christmas launch. When Focus pitched you this date, what was your preliminary response?

I used to be very excited as a result of it appeared like nice counter-programming and the movie’s received a Christmas tree in it, in snow and a Christmas Carol. So, it’s a Christmas film. Boom.

“Nosferatu” opens nationwide on Dec 25

Robert Eggers Thought His Horror ‘Christmas Movie’ Might Never Happen

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