Robert Eggers’ ‘Nosferatu’ Begins Filming as Horror Remake Adds Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Taylor-Johnson joins a stacked cast that includes Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, and Lily-Rose Depp.

After finding success depicting witches, mermaids, and Vikings, Robert Eggers is finally ready to make his vampire movie. Focus Features has announced that Eggers’ reimagining of “Nosferatu” has officially begun filming in Prague, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson joining an already-stacked cast that includes Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, Lily-Rose Depp, and Nicholas Hoult.

The official synopsis from Focus Features describes Eggers’ “Nosferatu” as a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th-century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him. Skarsgård is playing the vampire, while Depp is playing the “haunted young woman.” Other roles, including Taylor-Johnson’s, have not been revealed.

The start of production marks the end of a lengthy development process, which saw Eggers nearly abandon the film because of his difficulty assembling a cast and obtaining financing.

“Dude, I don’t know,” Eggers previously told IndieWire when asked about the status of the film. “It’s fallen apart twice. I’ve been trying to get the word out because the word did carry that Harry Styles was going to be in the movie. I just want to be clear that he was going to be Hutter and not Nosferatu himself. “

At a certain point, the film was delayed so many times that Eggers began to wonder if supernatural forces were cursing the project to prevent a non-German director like him from adapting an iconic German film. Eggers heaped praise on F.W. Murnau’s beloved “Nosferatu” while criticizing Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake — though he conceded that Herzog’s German heritage made him somewhat qualified to adapt the material.

“Herzog’s movie — for me, and I love Herzog, he’s one of my favorite directors — but I do feel like it is uneven,” Eggers said. “Love the score, love [Isabelle] Adjani, love [Klaus] Kinski, but, like front-lit night scenes, what? That’s just Herzog doing Herzog. But the best sequence of that movie, for me, is getting to the castle with Das Rheingold, and I don’t even know if it makes sense in the film even though it’s awesome. But at the same time because of German history and German cinema history, it was his right to do that film, and he needed to do that film. I don’t know. Maybe Murnau’s telling me I don’t have the right.”