Robert Eggers on why Nosferatu is a great quirky Christmas movie

This Christmas, there are many options at your local movie theater. there is a lion, Hedgehogswitches, DemigodsAnd more. But the coolest and most attractive choice is the vampire. this week, Director Robert Eggers unleashed Nosferatua long-awaited and anticipated film based on the famous 1922 film by director F.W. Murnau. Bill Skarsgård plays the evil Count Orlok. Which creeps in his way The lives of newlyweds Thomas and Elaine (Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp).

It’s a dark and atmospheric but entertaining film from a director who, even with only three films under his belt, has managed to carve out a very solid reputation. with The witchthe lighthouseand NorthmanEggers cemented himself as a meticulously visual filmmaker with a historical and gothic flair. Nosferatu This may be his most “Eggers” film to date, but it will also be released at Christmas, a very commercial time.

io9 spoke to Eggers via video chat a few weeks ago, and this conflict between art and product is where our conversation began.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Germain Lussier, io9: I love your films because they are not only entertaining, but also because they are so precise, beautiful and often strange. I’m wondering, at what point in the process are you wrestling between artistic motivations and commercial viability?

Robert Eggers: Well, this movie was intended from the beginning to be the “easier movie” for me. You may or may not know this but the main creative producer on this is Chris Columbus Alone at home and Harry Potter Fame. Chris has been a mentor to me since we met during post-production The witch. But he knows we’re very different filmmakers, and that’s part of the reason why we collaborate creatively, and I think that’s a beautiful match. My business partner, Jaren Blaschke, and I meticulously storyboarded the films. Well, we work with a storyboard artist, but we meticulously plan all the shots. And Chris was going through the storyboards, looking at them all very carefully, and sometimes he would say, “Where is this story in your script? You need this here.” And Chris, being a master of traditional Hollywood storytelling, was often an antidote to me and Garren’s obtrusive tendencies to tell this story the way I wanted, because he was there to make this the best Robert Eggers movie it could be. , not Chris Columbus. But also, with this film, I had incredible support from Focus Features, who gave me a lot of creative control.

io9: And I think we got a hint that this was supposed to be more commercial because a year ago when the movie was announced, the focus was like, “Robert Eggers, Nosferatugoing out on Christmas Day. This is always a big deal, the Christmas edition. Have you been part of that conversation, and does a major release date like this change your thinking at all?

Eggs: Yes, I mean I was part of the conversation, but in the end this was the date they offered me, and I embraced it with a lot of excitement. Obviously the movie takes place, in the middle of the night, around Christmas time, and there’s a Christmas tree, and there’s conversations about Christmas, and there’s a scene where there’s a music box playing “O Tannenbaum” and it was originally playing like a Mozart piece, and when we got On the Christmas release date, I said, “Let’s put ‘O Tannenbaum’ on there.”

io9: That’s great. Now, Willem Dafoe is in the film and who I’ve worked with before. Obviously he’s incredible but he also has some history with this world’s existence Vampire shadow. Did you guys ever discuss that and to what extent did those conversations factor into this film at all?

Eggers: I love this movie, and it’s a great movie, but they’re kind of unrelated. But obviously we realize that it’s great for audience members who know that he’s fishing for himself in this movie.

io9: Is there anything in this film that you were able to achieve that you’re particularly proud of, or that was particularly challenging, both technically in terms of story and tone?

Eggs: I mean there’s a lot of things. One thing, for me personally, I don’t know how the audience will experience it, but I feel like the long, uninterrupted shots, the “owners” in this film, are a little less strict and a little more invisible. This is my impression, and I may be wrong. I’m very proud of the cemetery’s atmosphere. This was something I really, really wanted. One of the very few things the Focus team had to worry about was my insistence on never shooting in anything but gloomy weather because we are standing around waiting for cloud cover and that can be very stressful. But the cemetery was an example of the necessity of this way of working. The Transylvanian village scene was incredibly complex in terms of acting, costumes and blocking. There are some actors, mostly non-actors, some professional dancers, and everyone speaks a different language from a different country. It was very complicated, but I like the way it turned out.

io9: This is so cool. I also know that you love research and this plays a big role in all of your films. How deep did you delve into the Count’s backstory, both for you and Bill? Do you guys know how and when he changed, how he developed his powers, or is this stuff kind of unnecessary?

Eggers: No no. In trying to make this story my own story – this story that has been told so many times – I wrote a short novel when I tried to break the script and the novel had a lot of backstory to get to know different characters. The epilogue was a long backstory for Orlok that I gave to Bill as part of his preparation. This will never be shared because the mystery is better for the audience, but it was important for Bill to have that history.

io9: So you never thought about putting that in at all?

Eggs: No, I mean, as much as this embodies things that aren’t embodied in Murnau’s film, a certain degree of ambiguity is important.

io9: This is a story you’ve been wanting to tell for a long time, and even came close to doing it at one point. How this version now differs from the version you may have created later The witch Or earlier in your career?

Eggs: You know, my intentions didn’t really change once I wrote that novel and once I broke that script. The script has become tighter and more polished, but my “vision” of what the film will be has not changed. But I’m glad it took so long. I’ve grown a lot as a person, and certainly as a director. My collaboration with the Chief Creative Officer has become more fluid and we have become an extension of each other. I also ended up with this absolutely wonderful actor.

io9: What a great cast, what makes all vampire movies unique. It’s also one of those genres where we have, you know, vampire comedies, we have vampire horror, we have vampire drama, we have everything. What makes this genre so flexible and what do you like about it?

Eggs: Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy how flexible the vampire is and how there’s room for Anne Rice and room for Blade and room for Count Chocula and room for all of these things. But I’ve been asked this question a lot, but the best I can come up with is sex and death. It’s a combination of sex and death.

io9: last thing, recent focus, She unveiled Nosferatu’s $20,000 coffin bedAnd I’m sure you know him. Do you have one? Do you want one? What would you say to someone who buys one? What are your thoughts?

Eggs: or. (Laughs, thinks, stops). “Congratulations.”

io9: (laughs) Exactly. Well, congratulations sir on a wonderful and beautiful film.

Nosferatu In theaters December 25.

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