Details remain scarce on this one since Eggers has yet to reveal much, but he wrote ‘Werwulf’ with Sjón, who co-wrote violent Viking saga ‘The Northman’ with the filmmaker.
‘Werwulf is’ described as a werewolf horror film set in 13th century England and is set to feature Old English dialogue.
Taylor-Johnson is reportedly set to play the titular werewolf, with Depp as his wife. The script reportedly features elements of witchcraft and is described as one of Eggers’ goriest projects to date. While the director at one point was considering shooting the film in black and white, he has now apparently dropped that idea.
The cameras are expected to begin rolling this September.
Aboard to produce are Christopher Columbus –– yes, the ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Home Alone’ director –– and his daughter Eleanor, who through their company Maiden Voyage Pictures, have been partnering with Eggers since his first film and were involved with shepherding ‘Nosferatu’ to screens.
Since Eggers and Focus saw such success with the seemingly strange Christmas Day release slot for ‘Nosferatu’ last year, they’re trying again, with ‘Werwulf’ targeting December 25th, 2026 as the date on which it will look to terrify audiences. Hairy Christmas!
(Left) Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kate in ‘Twisters’, directed by Lee Isaac Chung. (Right) Emma Thompson in ‘Sense and Sensibility’. Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.
Preview:
Daisy Edgar-Jones is aboard to star in a new ‘Sense & Sensibility’ Adaptation.
Many people view Ang Lee’s 1995 movie version of the story as the best cinematic example, but that isn’t putting off the team behind a new take.
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Georgia Oakley, who most recently directed ‘Blue Jean’, will oversee the new version, which has ‘Twisters’ Daisy Edgar-Jones on board to star, with writer Diana Reid on script duty.
(L to R) Greg Wise, Emma Thompson in ‘Sense and Sensibility’. Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.
Originally published in 1811 with the anonymous byline “By a Lady,” ‘Sense and Sensibility’ was the first novel by Austen, who later also wrote such literary classics as ‘Emma’, ‘Persuasion’ and, of course, the aforementioned ‘Pride & Prejudice’.
The novel’s narrative follows sisters Elinor (the role Edgar-Jones will take) and Marianne Dashwood, who navigate love, loss and financial uncertainty as they are forced to leave their family estate in Sussex.
The role of Marianne Dashwood hasn’t been announced yet.
In director Wes Anderson’s 11th full-length feature film, ‘The Phoenician Scheme,’Benicio del Toro stars as Anatole ‘Zsa-zsa’ Korda, a wealthy 1950s industrialist who somehow keeps just barely avoiding death as he pursues his greatest venture yet, rebuilding the infrastructure of the obscure region of Phoenicia. To make sure his affairs are in order, Zsa-zsa reaches out to his estranged daughter, a nun named Liesl (Mia Threapleton), to join him on his quest and take over if necessary.
Accompanied by administrative assistant Bjørn (Michael Cera), pursued by assassins, and challenged by a business consortium that hopes to foil his plans, Zsa-zsa and Liesl hit the road to meet with Zsa-zsa’s own network of investors and raise the money necessary to cover the shortfall (‘The Gap’) in his funding. Along the way, Zsa-zsa (sort of) rediscovers his own humanity and begins to repair his relationship with Liesl.
As with all Anderson movies, ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ is a mix of whimsy, deadpan comedy, and emotional truth, set in Anderson’s distinctive, colorful, and surreal world, and stacked with a cast of both Anderson regulars and new players that this time includes Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Tom Hanks, Riz Ahmed, Jeffrey Wright, Willem Dafoe, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Bill Murray (as God, of course). Anderson, del Toro, Threapleton, Johansson, Cera, and Cranston were on hand recently for a press conference about the film, and Moviefone was there to get the details.
Wes Anderson says that the movie’s protagonist, business tycoon Anatole ‘Zsa-zsa’ Korda, was based partially on his father-in-law, a Lebanese businessman named Fouad Malouf to whom the movie is dedicated.
Wes Anderson: I had a sort of idea of a tycoon, a Euro-tycoon, like somebody who would’ve been in an Antonioni movie or something. I did have this idea that he was probably hurting, that he was going to be in physical distress. Somehow, that was the image, of this guy who you sort of can’t kill, and he has a very expensive watch, something like that. But in the course of time, it started mixing with my father-in-law, my wife’s father, Fouad, who was an engineer and a businessman and he had all these different projects in different places. He was a kind, warm person, but very intimidating, and he had all his business in these shoeboxes. He walked [my wife] through his work at a certain point, because he thought if he is not able to see everything through, she needs to know what he’s got. And her reaction was what [Mia’s character says] in the movie: “This is just crazy.” So it was a mixture of those two things.
2) The Opening Credits Sequence Was Shot In Slow Motion
For the sequence that plays under the opening credits – a single take filmed from overhead in which an injured Zsa-zsa recovers from his wounds in a bath as a fleet of nurses tend to him – Benicio del Toro says that Wes Anderson proposed a strange way to shoot it.
Benicio del Toro: I sat in the bathtub and Wes walked up to me and he said, “We’re gonna shoot this in slow motion.” And I said, “Oh, cool”…And then he said, “But I need everyone to act really fast.” And now I went, “Wait a second, if we’re gonna act fast and you’re gonna be doing it in slow motion, doesn’t that cancel the slow motion? Let’s do it in normal speed.” And he said, “No, no, no, no, it’s gonna be different.” And then I got to see it after he put it together. We were there for a long time ’cause it was all done in one take. We did it, I don’t know, like, 30 times? It was a lot of moving pieces. There’s a lot of nurses, I think six or seven, they’re doing different things…But basically, I think that when you see it, it’s unique.
3) Mia Threapleton Did A Lot Of Research To Play A Nun
To prepare for her role as Liesl, Zsa-zsa’s estranged daughter who has become a nun, Mia Threapleton dove into studying Catholicism before heading to the shoot at Studio Babelsberg in Berlin.
Mia Threapleton: I had, I think, three months from the time of finding out that I had been offered the job to when I landed in Berlin. So that felt like a good amount of time to just get claws-deep into this as much as I can. Which included, but was not limited to, talking to a deacon of a Catholic church, going to Rome — because I had to go there for a fitting — absorbing as much Catholicism that was there, and reading the Bible, chatting with Wes about portions of the Bible…I did send [Wes] my little to-do list of things that I was doing and he said, “Yes, this all looks very, very good.”
4) This Was Michael Cera’s First Wes Anderson Filmmaking Experience
A new member to the Wes Anderson stable of players is ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ star Michael Cera, who recalled his initial rehearsals with Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, and the director.
Michael Cera: It was really the first time we’d all met, and it was just like developing a sense of our little team, our little unit. We did rehearse and we read the scenes, but I mostly remember our lunches together, and just getting our little rhythm going together. For me, it was sort of the first time saying the lines out loud and trying the accent — kind of like lightly getting in, dipping into it slowly. But it didn’t kind of get up to speed until we started, I feel like. And then we just picked our lane.
5) Mia Threapleton’s Veil Originated With Tableware
While doing costume tests for her role as Liesl, who is a nun, Mia Threapleton says she came upon a very unusual inspiration for her veil.
Mia Threapleton: There was some sort of mock nun habit, and some polite little plimsoll shoes, and it was very nice. But the one thing that was missing was a proper veil. I think all we had were nurse’s caps or something like that and [Wes] just was like, nah, it’s not quite right. It was reaching the end of the day, and we were trying to figure out how to make this work. I looked over to the coffee table and there was a napkin from lunch that was not stained with anything, so I said, “Does anybody have any hair pins?” I quickly pinned this thing to my head, and Wes came over and [he adjusted it], and took a photo of it, and that’s apparently where the veil came from.
6) Wes Anderson Creates Characters With Actors In Mind
Over the years, Wes Anderson has assembled a top-shelf troupe of actors who regularly appear in his movies, from Bill Murray to Owen Wilson to Scarlett Johansson (now on her third Anderson outing) to Jeff Goldblum. Anderson says that he (and frequent co-writer Roman Coppola) wrote several parts in ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ with specific performers in mind.
Wes Anderson: The part for Scarlett we did think, okay, if Scarlett will do this, then we had her in mind for that. Bryan and Tom Hanks together, I think the characters partly came out of imagining them as much as it was the other way around. And Benicio too. So, yeah, many of the roles we sort of cast ’em as we go, and I tend to also, as soon as we have the idea, I tend to send the email and say, “this could be like maybe October” or something like that and try to get on the books if they’ll have me.
7) A Wes Anderson Script Requires Time and Concentration To Read
Bryan Cranston says that Anderson’s screenplays are so packed with details and information that a quick read is not only not possible, but not recommended.
Bryan Cranston: Until you see the cartoon, as Wes puts it, the animatic — the full animatic film that he voices all the characters on — until you actually see that, it’s not always clear where he’s going, because the scripts are very dense in detail. There is no skimming in a Wes Anderson-Roman Coppola script. And oftentimes, I go, wait, what was that? If you miss one little bit, it’s not going to track, so you have to really read them carefully to understand. That’s probably why you read it three or four times.
8) Benicio del Toro Wanted To Cut Dialogue – But Couldn’t Figure Out What To Cut
Benicio del Toro is in just about every scene in ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ and delivers reams of dialogue as Zsa-zsa Korda. But when he tried to reduce the amount of lines he had to say, he couldn’t make it work.
Benicio del Toro: There were a couple moments where I went up to Wes and I said, “Well, maybe we can take this dialogue out.” And then I went back to it, and it wasn’t as good. So I had to go up to him and go like, “I think you need to put it back, ’cause we’re passing information that I think you need.” But that’s why I couldn’t join these people every day for dinner. I had to go up into my room and talk to myself, you know?
9) Wes Anderson’s Films Are Not As ‘Calculated’ As They Look
Even though Wes Anderson’s movies all share a look and stylization that makes them easily recognizable as his work, Scarlett Johansson says that within Anderson’s carefully composed framing and designs there is still lots of room for the actors to experiment.
Scarlett Johansson: The blocking may be specific, and the camera moves are specifically what they need to be, and there’s sometimes a timing element to it, which is a little bit more, I don’t want to say restrictive, but it’s just particular, I guess. But then the performances, I think [Wes is] very playful within that, because he’s just enjoying it and encouraging variety. I’ve gotten some questions when we’ve done press for Wes’s films, and it seems that it comes across that everything is so calculated. But I think the actual process of it doesn’t feel that way at all. Maybe, again, because the camera moves are very calculated, and sometimes there’s specific props and all of that stuff, and the edit is very sharp, it gives it a feeling that it’s so calculated, but I don’t think the performances are. If it becomes so calculated it doesn’t work, because then it feels like a schtick or something.
Wes Anderson says that he doesn’t always know what he’s trying to say with his movies, and that it sometimes takes seeing the completed film for him to understand what it’s about.
Wes Anderson: After making the movie and seeing it when we have it all put together, then I think sometimes you realize what you had in mind, but you’re not totally conscious of it. I told my agent my theory, and he was like, “That’s obvious — of course that’s what the movie is. I don’t understand, how could you not know that?” But I didn’t realize it was obvious. I think the whole story of the movie, this whole mission that [Zsa-Zsa] goes on in our movie, he’s being confronted with the possibility of his death again and again. And what he thinks he has is a business plan that he wants to make sure goes through. But I think maybe from the beginning, in a way, his whole business plan is really a mechanism for him to get back together with [his daughter]. He’s acting like he’s making her his successor, and really, it’s more about what’s going to happen between the two of them right now. The business plan almost becomes like a ritual for him to be reunited with his daughter, and in that sense, his plan goes great.
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What is the plot of ‘The Phoenician Scheme’?
Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) appoints his only daughter, a nun (Mia Threapleton), as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists and determined assassins.
After being disappointed by his last outing, ‘Asteroid City’, I’m happy to report that director Wes Anderson has returned to form with ‘The Phoenician Scheme’, which is awkwardly funny and gives off ‘Royal Tenenbaums’ vibes. The movie takes full advantage of Anderson’s unique and quirky humor and is beautiful to look at. Each frame is meticulously designed, and is so breathtaking, it’s like watching at a moving painting.
Benicio del Toro gives a commanding performance as notorious businessman and family patriarch Zsa-zsa Korda, while Mia Threapleton is wonderful in her role as Sister Liesl, Korda’s only daughter and heir to his empire. But its actor Michael Cera that gives one of the best performances of his career as the mysterious Bjørn Lund. Cera is perfectly cast in the role and seems born to be in a Wes Anderson film as his own quirky persona fits the filmmaker’s aesthetic like a glove.
The film begins by introducing us to Zsa-zsa Korda (del Toro), a notorious businessman who has survived several assassination attempts. Fearing that his enemies will eventually be successful, Korda summons his only daughter Liesl (Threapleton) who has recently joined a convent and suspects him of killing her mother. Despite having nine young sons, Korda has chosen Liesl to be his heir and take over his empire. Korda believes that his risky new enterprise, will provide for his family for generations to come.
Korda and Sister Liesl embark on a journey to secure the rest of the funds they’ll need for their venture by visiting acquaintances like Leland (Hanks) and Reagan (Cranston), Marty (Wright), Cousin Hilda (Johansson), and eventually Korda’s brother Uncle Nubar (Cumberbatch), who may be Liesl’s real father. They travel with a mysterious young man named Bjørn Lund (Cera), who becomes Korda’s personal assistant and has feelings for Sister Liesl. Along the way Korda survives several attempted assassinations from an opposing group led by Excalibur (Rupert Friend), each time having a near death experience where he goes to heaven and eventually speaks to God (Murray).
Wes Anderson’s quirky brand of humor is not for everyone, but it is my favorite type of humor. I love absurdly bizarre situations played dead serious, and no one does that better than Anderson. ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ is my favorite of his films, although I really enjoyed the recent ‘The French Dispatch’, and ‘Phoenician Scheme’ is very similar to ‘Tenenbaums’. Both revolve around an eccentric, arrogant, rich patriarch who struggles with being a father and has delusions of grandeur.
Anderson is a unique and singular director. No one else before him or after has ever made a movie that looks like a Wes Anderson film. Everything you see in a Wes Anderson movie was thought out and meticulously placed. Each frame of his movies is like watching a beautiful moving painting. The gorgeous over the head shot of Korda in a bathtub that runs during the opening credits is a perfect example. Congratulations to Anderson and is production design team for their attention to detail, which makes this film and Anderson’s work in general a visual delight.
The three leads completely carry the film including del Toro, Threapleton and Cera. Benicio del Toro, who first worked with Anderson on the criminally underrated ‘The French Dispatch’ fits in to Anderson’s world exceedingly well. Here he is commanding, purposely over-the-top at times, but also measured, playing deadpan at the right moments and he has excellent chemistry with Threapleton.
In fact, Mia Threapleton is a revelation in this film, not surprising as her mother is the iconic Kate Winslet, and obviously the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. She adapts to Anderson’s style and pacing impressively well, and brings heart and humor to the ridiculous situations her character finds herself in.
Michael Cera, who’s dry delivery was on display in ‘Arrested Development’, ‘Superbad’ and ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’, perfectly fits Anderson’s aesthetic as if the actor was born to be in one of the director’s films. As Bjørn Lund he creates a character that is as likable and sympathetic as he is completely ridiculous. And without giving away any spoilers, the actor is also believable in the character’s surprise turn in the third act.
The returning cast of “Wes Anderson Players” were all welcomed, even if most of their roles only amounted to glorified cameos. Bryan Cranston and Tom Hanks are quite funny as the basketball playing Reagan and Leland, respectively. Jeffrey Wright is equally funny as Marty, electing to adopt a very strange characterization.
Scarlett Johansson, marking her third outing with Anderson, shines like an old school movie star and is excellent in her limited role. Playing the pivotal character of Uncle Nubar, Benedict Cumberbatch is fine but perhaps not as intimidating as the role calls for. Richard Ayoade is very funny as revolutionist Sergio, and Anderson mainstay Bill Murray gives a very dry but hilarious performance as God, of course.
While Wes Anderson’s movies might not be for everyone, ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ is one of his better recent films and is reminiscent of perhaps his greatest movie, ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’. Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, and Mia Threapleton all give excellent performances, surrounded by a marvelous cast of frequent Anderson collaborators. If you like meticulously beautiful and absurdly funny movies, then this one is for you.
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What is the plot of ‘The Phoenician Scheme’?
Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) appoints his only daughter, a nun (Mia Threapleton), as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists and determined assassins.
‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’ receives 7 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters in limited release on March 28th before opening wide on April 18th, ‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’ looks set to appeal to audiences who enjoy low-key, charming British fare where the stakes are pretty low, but the laughs are plentiful and the emotions welcome.
Based on a short film by comedy duo Tim Key and Tom Basden, the new movie doesn’t have giant set pieces or a big VFX budget, but it’ll nevertheless entertain you if you’re after a quiet, heartwarming comedy that has bigger themes on its mind.
On the face of it, ‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’ might seem of a piece with several other small-scale British movie comedies to arrive in the last few years, especially 2022’s ‘Brian and Charles,’ which itself focused on a similarly unlikely hero with big aims and less success than he might hope.
Instead of a quirky inventor and his robot friend, here we have an eccentric lottery winner living on a remote island off the coast of the U.K. who has decided that what’ll make him truly happy is to reunite his favorite music duo years after the pair –– who were together in life as well as music –– have gone their separate ways.
As it turns out, while the lure of the money is enough to get them back in the same place (despite one having become a slightly pretentious solo artist on the verge of self-financing his latest album and the other having given up the musical spotlight for a quieter life in America with her husband), sparking those collaborative fires again won’t be as easy as that.
The result is an oddball comedy that has deeper emotions at its core, exploring love, loss and the place that memory has in our lives.
Stars Tim Key and Tom Basden had a head start on the basic concept, having brought it to screens (alongside director James Griffiths) in short film ‘The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island.’
Yet the movie version is far from simply an expanded take on the short, here deepening the ideas and adding characters –– the Carey Mulligan role, for example, doesn’t exist in the original. Instead, they’ve carefully crafted a story of love and loss, of searching for something that once made your life whole and ultimately realizing that sometimes it’s better to move on.
It’s also a funny film, Key in particular drawing laughs as a very British sort of eccentric. And while it’s initially troubled by the two main characters sometimes sounding like they’ve been written the same way, as the scope expands and the story evolves, that fades away and what you’re left with is a satisfying tale that doesn’t opt for easy answers or a pat finale.
Griffiths, more known for his work on the small screen on series such as ‘Episodes,’ ‘A Million Little Things’ and ‘Bad Sisters’ (though he has one other movie to his credit via 2014’s ‘Cuban Fury’), here brings a gentle touch to the film, taking full advantage of the dramatic, beautiful Welsh coastline and its unpredictable weather.
‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’ was never a movie crying out for incredibly inventive visuals, but he shoots the film in an entertaining, grounded style, focusing on the characters, but also giving them room to breathe.
Tim Key is one of our focal here, and while he’s a gracious scene partner who interacts well with everyone else (particularly Basden, though it’s not surprising given their shared history in comedy).
Charles Heath is a character who so easily could have come across as pathetic and needy, but in Key’s hands, he’s a well-rounded weirdo, a man who has largely closed himself off from the world, but hasn’t let that turn him bitter or spiteful. He’s a cheery sort, socially awkward and endlessly pushing buttons he’s not even aware he is, but never in a mean way.
His dynamic with the obviously frustrated and dissatisfied Herb McGwyer, played by Basden is a highlight of the film. While Charles is naturally thrilled to be spending quality time with one of his heroes, Basden gives Herb a slightly anxious, sometimes dismissive quality that is nevertheless nuanced beyond the portrayal of a musician who thinks he’s a true original.
And playing Nell Mortimer, the woman who was once his great love and muse, Carey Mulligan brings all her skills to bare on the role. She’ll win your heart, but also make you understand why she chose to take the path in life that she’s on. Mulligan is typically superb here.
Like the island on which it is set, this is a sparse film in terms of inhabitants, but there is excellent support from ‘Fleabag’ veteran Sian Clifford as local shop owner Amanda, who may turn to mean more to Charles than just making sure he’s supplied with tennis balls. And Akemnji Ndifornyen is great as Nell’s friendly husband Michael, who vibes instantly with Charles but also figures Herb out fairly quickly.
Final Thoughts
(L to R) Director James Griffiths, Carey Mulligan, Tim Key and Tom Basden talk ‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’.
‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’ seems likely to find more of a niche audience, but those who go along with its cheery, earnest and honest vibe will find what they’re after.
It’s wryly funny, uses slapstick comedy well strategically and boasts some superb performances.
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What’s the story of ‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’?
Charles (Tim Key) is an eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island and dreams of getting his favorite musicians, McGwyer Mortimer (Tom Basden & Carey Mulligan) back together. His fantasy turns into reality when the bandmates and former lovers accept his invitation to play a private show at his home on Wallis Island. Old tensions resurface as Charles tries desperately to salvage his dream gig.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Cate Blanchett, Naomie Harris and Tom Burke about their work on ‘Black Bag’, Blanchett’s first reaction to the screenplay and exploring her character’s marriage, Harris and Burke’s characters’ motivations, and working with legendary filmmaker Steven Soderbergh.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch the interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, Cate, can you talk about your first reaction to David Koepp’s screenplay and the opportunity to explore this intriguing marriage dynamic between George and Catherine?
Cate Blanchett: Yes, well, I’d already agreed to do it before I read the script, because obviously when you know David Koepp is writing it and Steven Soderbergh is going to direct it, you know it’s going to be a great adventure. So, then when Steven said he wanted Michael (Fassbender) to play George, I went, “Oh, that’s perfect.” But I was surprised by just how elusive their relationship was, but also how the absolute bedrock of their relationship is that they would die for each other. I find that deeply romantic, and particularly after they’ve been together a long time. They’ve clearly decided not to have children and they’re devoted to their work. But the only thing they’re devoted to more is each other. So, I think that there was an intensely romantic thing at the heart of this film, which was not something you necessarily associate with a texture in the movies that Steven makes.
MF: Naomie, can you talk about your approach to playing Zoe, and since she is a therapist to a group of spies, can she truly trust anything they say, and how does she navigate that?
Naomie Harris: Well, I think she must be two steps ahead of them. I mean, she’s immensely intuitive, insightful and hugely intelligent, as well as being a little morally corrupt and slightly unorthodox in her methods. She’s basically created her own way of working in that environment where morality rules don’t matter. All that matters are results. Are the spies mentally sound and are they staying on mission? That’s it for her.
MF: Tom, can you talk about how Freddie’s personal life is affecting his professional life?
TB: Yeah, I mean, it’s alluded to in the dialogue and in everything that happens, I suppose, as well. You do feel like amid what must be an incredibly careful and focused skill set for his career, that there’s a completely improvised element of his own life that involves drinking, drugging and an awful lot else. That’s very interesting to play because it seems like a paradox, but also it makes sense that somebody like that might be drawn to a high-risk career. It’s to kind of accommodate that need or that drive.
MF: Tom, as an actor, what is it like being on a Steven Soderbergh set? What was he like to work with as a director?
TB: He has an amazing understanding of how to optimize what his actors are bringing to each scene and it’s not least to do with energy and time. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that handled quite so caringly or felt that handled quite so caringly.
MF: Cate, you’ve worked with Steven Soderbergh before, how was this experience similar or different than the last time you worked together?
CB: Well, we’d worked together years ago on a film called ‘The Good German’, which I think about three and a half people saw. But which Steven has said is one movie he was so completely happy with, and it was such an interesting experience for me. So, it was just a deepening of that experience. He’s so economical and so relaxed while he gives time to people to do what they do. So, he’s very respectful to every single department and grateful to every single department who are working towards making the movie great. What he doesn’t have any truck for is people who are lazy and unprepared. So, he makes you really want to bring your best for him. You want to be ready. If you say to him, “I need to go again”, he’ll go, “Don’t worry about it, I’m only going to use those four frames,” because he’s editing in his head. I mean, he’s like a machine with the biggest heart. You know, he really cares about the actors that he works with and every single member of the crew. So, before I worked with him, I don’t think I could even imagine that those two parts of a cinema artist could coexist as beautifully as they do in him.
MF: Finally, Naomie, what surprised you about working with Steven Soderbergh?
NH: I think one of the shocking things for me about working with Steven was just how much freedom he gives to actors. He truly casts well and then he completely trusts you to make of the characters what you will. I’ve never had that much liberty. So, in the beginning I was really intimidated by it. But then it’s such a liberating and an empowering experience where you’re just like, this person believes in me so much that I can make any choice that I want. So, I really learned a lot from working with him.
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What’s the story of ‘Black Bag’?
‘Black Bag’ follows legendary intelligence agents George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) and his beloved wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett).
When she is suspected of betraying the nation, George faces the ultimate test –– loyalty to his marriage or his country.
‘Last Breath’ is part of a curious phenomenon – which mostly seems to exist on Netflix – in which a documentary about a real-life incident or series of events is followed by a fictional limited series or movie about the same subject (or vice versa). ‘Last Breath,’ out this week from Focus Features, is a narrative feature remake of the 2019 documentary of the same name, with one of the doc’s directors, Alex Parkinson, handling the same duties for the feature (he co-directed the doc with Richard da Costa).
The true story is a harrowing one – in which a deep-sea saturation diver was stranded in hundreds of feet of water with no oxygen for 29 minutes – but Parkinson’s feature is curiously lacking in tension or the kind of character development necessary for an audience to get fully involved in the story. It attempts in part to make up for that with a bombastic, intrusive score from Paul Leonard-Morgan, which does its best to make the viewer think they’re watching hugely dramatic moments, and it’s got two solid leads in Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu, but the movie feels flat and, at just 93 minutes, oddly brief and inconsequential.
We’re not here to downplay in any way the experience that deep sea diver Chris Lemons (played here by British ‘Peaky Blinders’ actor Finn Cole) went through in 2012. In the movie, as in real life, he and fellow diver Dave Yuasa (Simu Liu) are carrying out repairs at an underwater pipeline juncture more than 300 feet below the surface of the North Sea.
With team leader Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson) in the diving bell and the two divers in the water, their ship the Bibby Topaz is buffeted by heavy storm winds and dragged off its location as its computerized positioning system fails, causing Lemons’ umbilical tether to snap and leave him with no fresh air (or heliox, a mix of helium and oxygen) to breathe.
With only eight minutes of air left in his backup supply, Lemons – in the dark as his suit’s power has also failed – must find his way to the pipeline and climb to the top of its supporting structure if there is to be any chance that he can be spotted by the ship’s underwater camera, so that Yuasa can return and rescue him.
Meanwhile, the ship’s crew above is trying to repair its positioning system so that it can get back over the precise location. In the end, Lemons loses consciousness after his air runs out and is trapped for some 29 minutes without anything to breathe – leaving his fate uncertain as his friends and crewmates desperately try to save him.
Before all this plays out, however, ‘Last Breath’ takes us through the pre-game of the ship’s mission, which includes, most fascinatingly, the deep-sea crew living in a large capsule for several days to get used to the pressurization underwater. But even that, as well as the teammates’ interactions, is presented in surprisingly humdrum fashion, while the characters themselves get only some perfunctory fleshing-out. We know that Chris loves his fiancé Morag (Bobby Rainsbury, glimpsed in the opening and closing of the film), that Duncan is being asked to retire under protest, and that Yuasa is a seemingly cold-hearted son of a bitch who nonetheless loves his kids.
When the main event finally occurs, Parkinson runs into trouble making it as suspenseful as it could be, relying more on that deafening score to push the story along. There are, to be sure, moments of true terror, as when Lemons first loses his connection to the diving bell and the ship and finds himself surrounded by utter darkness, not even knowing that the pipeline is just a few yards behind him. The initial assault of the storm is unsettling as well, and Yuasa’s difficult, climactic climb up the diving bell tether, dragging what could well be Lemons’ corpse under him, makes for a tense few minutes as well.
But the whole thing feels curiously small for a feature film, especially since Lemons’ accident and rescue all essentially take place in under an hour. While that is more than enough to leave his fate deeply uncertain, the relative brevity of the film’s narrative combined with the murky cinematography and paucity of character work make ‘Last Breath’ seem more perfunctory than clearly intended.
‘Last Breath’ is clearly bolstered by the presence of Harrelson and Liu, both thankfully avoiding attempts at British accents by playing slightly fictionalized versions of their characters. Harrelson can do the role of Allcock in his sleep – the grizzled veteran full of wisdom and war stories – but he’s also mostly passive in the film, as he sits in the diving bell while Lemons and Yuasa are the focus of the action below and the ship’s crew the center of the drama above.
Liu is formidable and steely as Dave Yuasa, probably giving the film’s best performance – while ironically having the least to say. Yet there is something in his presence and silence that radiates both authority and cynicism, along with a slight touch of fatalism that is probably inherent in this kind of dangerous work. The one moment when he lets his guard down at the end – as he silently gazes at a photo of his children – is also a nice moment of minimalism on his part.
Finn Cole is fine but rather bland as Lemons, who is also sidelined for much of the film’s second half. On board the ship we have the always great Cliff Curtis as the captain, along with sturdy character actors Myanna Buring and Mark Bonnar as his bridge officers, but aside from their welcome appearance there’s little insight into their characters.
‘Last Breath’ falls squarely in the tradition of movies about a collective human spirit battling adversity, and there’s no question that the efforts of the ship’s crew and Chris Lemons’ diving teammates were courageous and humane without compare. All are resolute in bringing Lemons back whether he’s dead or alive, and refuse to leave him down in the dark depths no matter what his ultimate fate is.
But ‘Last Breath’ doesn’t quite capture the emotion and tension of those events because of its prosaic pacing and handling, and even the most mysterious and intriguing part of the story – what ultimately happens to Lemons – is casually delivered at the end, although to be fair it’s difficult to say whether that aspect of the story can be visualized properly. Even with its terrific cast and intermittently gripping moments, ‘Last Breath’ never quite gives this tale – pardon the pun – room to breathe.
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What is the plot of ‘Last Breath’?
When a deep-sea diver (Finn Cole) becomes trapped hundreds of feet below the surface during a storm, his two teammates (Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu) and the crew of their ship race against time and the elements to save him before he runs out of oxygen.
Filmmaker Robert Eggers has announced his next film.
He’ll write and direct werewolf tale ‘Werwulf.’
It should be in theaters on Christmas Day, 2026.
While it may not have quite the same box office footprint as, say, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ or ‘Inside Out 2,’ Robert Eggers’ latest slice of historical horror certainly performed for the director, with a $40 million five-day opening, doubling industry expectations.
‘Nosferatu‘ has scared up more than $156 million worldwide and become Eggers’ highest-grossing movie to date, not to mention one of the more successful horror offerings of 2024.
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And now, via The Hollywood Reporter, we have word on what he wants to do next. Eggers is teaming back up with Universal’s indie genre arm Focus Features to craft ‘Werwulf,’ which as the name suggests, will see some terrifying transformations.
It’s certainly a challenge, even for a filmmaker as accomplished as Eggers since werewolves have not had the easiest time of it at the box office. The most recent howling horror to try, Leigh Whannel’s ‘Wolf Man,’ failed to take a bite out of ticket sales, with just $17 million worldwide so far after a little less than a week on release.
(L to R) Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, director Robert Eggers, Willem Dafoe, and Anya Taylor-Joy at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘The Northman.’
Details remain scarce on this one since Eggers has yet to reveal much, but he wrote ‘Werwulf’ with Sjón, who co-wrote violent Viking saga ‘The Northman’ with the filmmaker.
The Reporter’s sources say the story is set in 13th century England. The script also features dialogue that was true to the time period and has translations and annotations for those uninitiated in Old English.
Eggers, in keeping with his love of stylish and creepy filmmaking, had originally intended to shoot the movie in black & white, though that has reportedly now been dropped.
Aboard to produce are Christopher Columbus –– yes, the ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Home Alone’ director –– and his daughter Eleanor, who through their company Maiden Voyage Pictures, have been partnering with Eggers since his first film and were involved with shepherding ‘Nosferatu’ to screens.
Not one to have just one project in the works at any one time, Eggers is juggling multiple possibilities, looking for whichever one is moved forward. It would appear ‘Werwulf’ has leapfrogged several others.
Here’s what Eggers told Indiewire about the process:
“[Medieval movie ‘The Knight’ is] on a shelf with a lot of screenplays. I have five things going on, because you never know what’s going to work, what’s going to appeal to people, what’s going to be greenlit. This movie [‘Nosferatu’] was not greenlit three times. I absolutely thought I was making a movie that has not gotten greenlit twice instead of this, so you never know. You’ve got to have a lot of stuff going on.”
Other projects that fell by the wayside include a Rasputin miniseries. And away from horror, Eggers reportedly would like to tackle a Western one day, having spent summers with his grandfather in Wyoming.
And this is what Eggers has said about his career to date:
“‘The Witch,’ proud of it, but I was frustrated that I wasn’t able to get what was in my head onto the screen. ‘The Lighthouse’ was a perfect stepping stone where I felt like I was able to do that. And ’The Northman,’ because the scope and scale was so massive, it was harder for me to do the same. It was a beast, a big learning experience, I’ve said this before, after making ‘The Northman,’ I finally felt like I know how to direct a movie, like I’m not trying to convince people that I know how to direct a movie. I’m not someone who has a lot of ideas and just hoping that it’s going to work. That gave me the tools to finally feel confident as a director, so it was nice going into ‘Nosferatu’ with that feeling.”
Casting has yet to be announced at this point, though Eggers tends to inspire loyalty in his cast no matter the sticky (usually bloody) situations he thrusts them into.
Willem Dafoe, meanwhile, has so far cropped up in ‘The Lighthouse,’ ‘The Northman’ and ‘Nosferatu’ and we know Eggers considers him a kindred spirit, so there’s a chance he’ll make it a fourth time should schedules allow and the right role is in the ‘Werwulf’ script. And let’s be honest: who doesn’t want to see Dafoe going through a scary, hairy transmogrification!
We’ll have to wait and see at this point, though.
When will ‘Werwulf’ howl into cinemas?
Since Eggers and Focus saw such success with the seemingly strange Christmas Day release slot for ‘Nosferatu’ last year, they’re trying again, with ‘Werwulf’ targeting December 25th, 2026 as the date on which it will look to terrify audiences. Hairy Christmas!
Opening in theaters on December 25th is ‘Nosferatu’, which is a remake of the classic 1922 German film, which itself was loosely based on Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel ‘Dracula’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with filmmaker Robert Eggers in an extended interview about his work on ‘Nosferatu’, why he wanted to make the movie, his love for the original, the look of the new film, visual vs. practical effects, Bill Skarsgård and Lily-Rose Depp’s performances, why he loves working with Willem Dafoe, why he will never make a modern movie, and what he learned from making this project.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about your fascination with the source material, why you wanted to remake this film, and how you wanted to do it differently than what we’ve seen before from this genre?
Robert Eggers: I mean, I saw F. W. Murnau‘s ‘Nosferatu’ that was made in 1922 when I was nine years old, and I watched on a VHS that was made from a degraded 16-millimeter print and there was a way in which the world and the vampire played by Max Schreck just seemed real and unearthed from the past and I was just totally transported to that world. I also loved that it turned Bram Stoker’s novel into a very simple fairy tale. So, I’ve been obsessed with ‘Nosferatu’ most of my life, but it’s not enough to be obsessed and love something there. You must have a reason to do it again. I thought that if I could tell the story through the eyes of the female protagonist, through Lily-Rose Depp’s character, that there would be a greater chance for the film to have more emotional and psychological depth because yes, it is a scary horror movie with a lot of dread and even some jump scares. But more than that, it is a tale of love and obsession and a Gothic romance. The other central thing that is very different from other versions is that over the years, vampires have become less and less and less scary, climaxing with Edward Cullen (‘Twilight’) and in order to make the vampire in the film scary again, I turned to folklore that was written about and by people who believe that vampires were real and were terrified of them and these folk vampires are walking undead, putrid corpses. So, then I asked myself, “What would a dead Transylvanian nobleman actually look like” and thus we created what Bill Skarsgård’s vampire is in this film.
MF: Did you only take inspiration from the original ‘Nosferatu’, or did you also draw from the ‘Dracula’ novel and other interpretations of the character?
RE: I mean, it’s everything. It’s very much the history of vampire films in general, but I’m inspired by all kinds of Gothic literature and Edgar Allan Poe, black and white Gothic movies from the 1930s to the 1960s, and art house Polish movies from the ’70s. I mean, the influences are massive. Even Mel Brooks‘ ‘Dracula: Dead and Loving’. It was helpful to see what are the mistakes that every Dracula movie has. That parody points them out, so you know not to make those mistakes.
MF: Can you talk about Bill Skarsgård’s performance and the specific way you wanted Count Orlok to look in the film?
RE: I mean, Bill’s incredibly transformative as Count Orlok. There’s no trace of Bill Skarsgård in the movie. He worked with an opera singer to lower his voice an octave. He has this incredibly low, powerful voice that if you’ve heard Bill speak, Bill speaks in a tenor voice like mine, and you would assume that we digitally manipulated it. But no, Bill trained and that is his performance and the prosthetics that took six hours to apply and then his utter transformation for Bill to disappear and the darkness to take over and him to become Count Orlok is quite impressive.
MF: Can you talk about your use of practical vs. visual effect in the film?
RE: There are certainly plenty of visual effects in the movie, but I try to do as many things practically as possible and, the things that you might expect to be visual effects, those are the things that I particularly would like to do practically. All of Bill’s makeup is done practically. There are thousands and thousands of rats in the film and the thousands of rats that would be in the foreground of the shot are real. The wolves are real. We built over 60 sets, including a massive backlog set of a northern German town.
MF: Can you also talk about the production design and the specific look of the film?
RE: Yeah, I mean, the reality of these sets is quite shocking. We talk about the finishes in the movie industry and when you’re in the middle of Orlok’s Great Hall in the castle, even without the lighting, it looks completely real. It’s wild.
MF: What was it like working with Lily-Rose Depp, and can you talk about her performance and her character’s descent into madness?
RE: Lily-Rose Depp’s performance is quite jaw-dropping, and so amazing. When I first met with her, I felt that she just understood the character so well and then she did this incredibly powerful audition that left me and the casting director and even the videographer who didn’t have anything invested in it in tears. But Ellen’s character has a sort of knowledge, a sort of insight into the dark realm, another realm, and she’s dealing with the demons that are inside of her and this vampire that’s after her. She does this incredible body work where she sometimes is having seizures and sometimes having, going through these wild acts of possession. She worked tirelessly with a movement coach on doing all these incredible body movements that also help these shocking emotions to arise. But again, the stuff that she does with her body, you would think would be CG manipulated or we would be using wire work, but it’s all her. She gives a tremendous performance.
MF: This is the third movie in a row you’ve made with Willem Dafoe. What do you like about working with him and is he your lucky charm at this point?
RE: I mean, Willem Dafoe is a legend. He’s one of the greatest actors of all time and I feel so joyful and thankful and humbled that Willem likes to work with me and keeps coming back. But obviously, he has this power and a sense of humor and a fire about him that makes all his roles so compelling. Here, as a slightly crazed vampire hunter occultist, it’s particularly enjoyable.
MF: All your films are period pieces. What do you like about making those types of movies and do you ever see yourself making a modern set film?
RE: Well, it’s more fun for me to do the research and to create these worlds. I live in a world of cell phones and toilets and dishwashers. I don’t need to make movies about it. It’s boring. How cool is it that I am dreaming about a castle for 10 years and then I get to stand inside the castle of my imagination? That is so much cooler than shooting a scene in a men’s room with someone looking at their cell phone.
MF: Finally, this is a movie you’ve wanted to make for a while, how does it feel now that you’ve accomplished that and what have you learned from this experience?
RE: I’m proud of what me and all my collaborators were able to accomplish. I’ve been working with the same creative heads of department for years and we’ve become further extensions of each, and we challenge each other, and we grow together. After so long, it’s not just my vision that we’ve articulated, but a collective vision and that is wonderful. But you also feel a little vulnerable because when it’s something that is this important to you, that’s kind of a strange feeling. But I’m eager for audiences to come to movie theaters and get transported into this world and enjoy ‘Nosferatu’, hopefully.
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What is the plot of ‘Nosferatu’?
Set in 1838 in Germany, Nosferatu follows the obsession between a haunted young woman, Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rise Depp), and the ancient Transylvanian vampire stalking her, Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), leading to untold horror.
Director and writer Robert Eggers has wanted to remake ‘Nosferatu’ even before his stunning debut, ‘The Witch,’ came out in 2016. The silent 1922 original from director F.W. Murnau is one of the landmarks of both horror cinema and German Expressionist film, while Werner Herzog’s 1979 version is both an update of the material and a tribute to the Murnau classic.
Now Eggers has delivered his interpretation of the material, which itself is an adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel ‘Dracula’ in everything but name (the short version: Murnau could not get the rights to the book from Stoker’s widow, so he changed all the names and filmed it anyway). Eggers, our reigning master of period horror thanks to the likes of ‘The Witch’ and ‘The Lighthouse’ (2019), has incorporated elements of both previous versions into his film, along with aspects of ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ (the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola movie) and even nods to other horror cornerstones like ‘The Exorcist’ and Mario Bava’s ‘Black Sabbath.’
Eggers’ dark fantasia may quickly become a modern horror classic in its own right: The macabre, surreal ‘Nosferatu’ is steeped in dread and a thick atmosphere of death and decay, featuring a terrifying monster – played by an unrecognizable Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise in ‘It’) – who proclaims that he is a primal force of evil (“I am an appetite, nothing more”) while emanating a despair and even loneliness that makes his corruption all the more palpable.
Set in 1838, ‘Nosferatu’ follows the basic plot that should be familiar to both readers of the original novel and generations of viewers who have watched cinematic variations on the tale, with a new wrinkle right from the onset: when we first meet the “melancholy” (as people suffering from depression and other clinical disorders were described back then) Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), she is a young woman plagued by terrible dreams and loneliness and desperate to make contact with something divine. Her slight touch of paranormal ability – branded “hysteria” – does indeed awaken something far, far away, but about as far from the angelic as one could imagine.
Years later, Ellen is married to up-and-coming estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) and has seemingly gotten control of her mental and emotional issues thanks to her newfound happiness. But dark thoughts begin to intrude when Thomas announces that at the behest of his employer, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), he must travel from their home in Wisborg, Germany to the distant land of Transylvania, where he is to close a deal for an elderly but extremely wealthy count named Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) to purchase a ruined property in Wisborg that he intends to make his new home. Leaving Ellen in the care of their friends Friedrich and Anna Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin), Thomas begins the long, arduous journey to Orlok’s castle – where he is met along the way by Romani who insist that he turn back at all costs.
Once at Orlok’s ancient, ominous abode – which seems to spread a literal blanket of decay over the land and everything around it – Thomas quickly realizes that there is something decidedly off about his host, who only appears at night. Orlok, of course, knows that Hutter is married to Ellen – the girl who cried out to him all those years ago – and luring Hutter to his castle while establishing himself in Wisborg is all part of Orlok’s plan to come to the “modern world” and claim her, spreading death and plague in his wake.
If there’s anything that slightly lets ‘Nosferatu’ down, it’s the fact that Eggers’ version – aside from the more explicitly perverse relationship between Ellen and Orlok – doesn’t hold many surprises. As fans of either previous version of ‘Nosferatu’ or many adaptations of ‘Dracula’ itself will know, this more or less follows Stoker’s time-tested narrative. Orlok imprisons and nearly kills Thomas before leaving for Wisborg on a doomed ship; his benefactor there, Knock (aka Renfield), arranges for his arrival while going insane; and as Thomas escapes and attempts to get home, a band of loyal friends, including the Hardings, Dr. Sievers (Ralph Ineson), and eventually the eccentric Dutch doctor/metaphysician Albin Von Franz (Willem Dafoe), join forces to protect Ellen against the peril coming for her and Wisborg, at great danger to themselves.
But while the story is familiar, Eggers drenches it in so much rich detail, thick atmosphere, and powerful malevolence that he perhaps creates the most immersive interpretation yet. And even though his Orlok/Dracula has moments where he is almost pitiable, this is perhaps the most purely monstrous version of the iconic character, an embodiment of evil and living death personified in one amazing shot of the shadow of his hand reaching across the darkened rooftops of Wisborg. “Nosferatu” and “Dracula” itself have always used their central character as a metaphor for many things, but the depravity and destruction he brings with him here are tangible like never before.
Also tangible is the time and place of Eggers’ tale, brought to life by his regular collaborators like production designer Craig Lathrop, DP Jarin Blaschke, and costume designer Linda Muir, who all bring an astonishing level of specificity and tactility to the darkened world of ‘Nosferatu.’ Blaschke in particular pays homage to the many versions of this tale that have come before – an eerie sequence in which Thomas walks through a dead forest as Orlok’s spectral coach approaches to pick him up could have been right out of the Murnau film – while creating a Gothic palette that’s wholly original to this movie.
With his filmography to date, Bill Skarsgård may become a modern Lon Chaney, the silent film star who specialized in grotesques and monsters. He draws upon both the Schreck and Kinski versions of Orlok, as well as Gary Oldman’s Count Dracula, yet provides a wholly new interpretation of the legendary vampire. Aided by incredible makeup from David White and Linda Muir’s costume, Orlok looks like a real 16th century Transylvania nobleman – albeit one that has been decomposing for centuries.
But all the makeup in the world could not do the job if Skarsgård himself didn’t fully inhabit the role, his blazing eyes and genuinely chilling voice delivering the immensity of Orlok’s depravity and even some of his self-pity and existential horror at his own existence. He, Eggers, White, and Muir have created a monster for the ages.
The other big story of this superb cast may be Lily-Rose Depp. Saddled previously with the HBO debacle ‘The Idol,’ Depp makes Ellen the driving force of the story, her unknowing attraction to the darkness battling with her yearning for a normal life and her love for Thomas. It’s that conflict within that makes Ellen come to life, the two sides to her personality also a metaphor for the women of the era – and many other eras – torn between knowing their “station” and forging ahead with lives of their own making. Depp finds both Ellen’s loving nature and her tragic inner self, as well as the darker aspects of her personality that are brought to bear by the presence of Orlok.
Nicholas Hoult’s Thomas is also given more depth here than the usual stalwart hero he’s portrayed as. Thomas starts out as a relative innocent, dedicated to providing for his wife and their life together, but his exposure to the corruption of Orlok changes him permanently. Hoult – who’s already having a hell of a year with ‘Juror #2’ and ‘The Order’ – delivers another solid performance as a man whose entire view of the world and what exists in it is upended with terrible results.
The other actors – Taylor-Johnson and Corrin as the loyal but increasingly frightened and exhausted Hardings, McBurney as the wildly demented Knock, Ineson as the rational Sievers, and of course Eggers regular Dafoe as the peculiar yet commanding Von Franz, round out an ensemble that does justice to each of their characters, all of them bringing an exceptional emotional and psychological commitment to the material.
Not only is ‘Nosferatu’ Robert Eggers’ most personal of his four films to date, a masterful retelling of a classic tale, and an achievement that secures his place among modern horror auteurs like Guillermo del Toro and Mike Flanagan, but it also resets the cinematic depiction of the vampire.
‘Nosferatu’ returns the monster to its ancient roots, particularly that of the Romanian strigoi and other manifestations in Eastern European folklore, shedding nearly all the modern romanticism of tales like ‘Twilight’ while retaining the creature’s symbolism as both a deliverer of death and a purveyor of primal, twisted urges. As a result, this ‘Nosferatu’ can stand proudly alongside its predecessors and may become a genre benchmark in its own right as time goes on.
‘Nosferatu’ receives 9 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘Nosferatu’?
A young woman haunted by spectral visions comes under the spell of an ancient vampire, whose obsession brings unimaginable evil and horror to everyone in his path.