Everything we know about vampire remake Nosferatu
It's a passion project for director Robert Eggers.
Christmastime won't be remembered for its pigs in blankets, mistletoe smooches or Baileys-fuelled hangovers this year, oh no - that's because a brand-new bloodsucking horror in the shape of Nosferatu is coming down the chimney.
A remake of F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, which itself adapted Bram Stoker's seminal novel Dracula and introduced audiences to their first-ever taste of cinematic vampirism, this 2024 version arrives 102 years later from director Robert Eggers of The Northman and The Lighthouse fame.
It's considered a passion project for Eggers, and he previously told Empire Magazine that his vision will bring back the scary "old-school Gothic movie" we've been missing on our screens. The filmmaker also claimed while the cameras were still rolling that he was "trying to go beyond what I'm capable of", which only added to an already colossal sense of fan excitement.
Here's what we can expect when Nosferatu drifts onto the big screen like an evil mist...
When will Nosferatu be released?
Eight years after development on the movie was originally confirmed, Nosferatu will be released in cinemas on 25 December, 2024, with distribution from Focus Features and Universal Pictures.
Is there a trailer out yet?
The first teaser trailer for Nosferatu arrived online just this week, with Lily-Rose Depp's character Ellen Hutter pleading into the silent night: "Come to me, come to me, hear my call..."
Cue all kinds of startling imagery filmed throughout the Czech Republic and Romania last year, as the camera flies through Count Orlok's castle; rats scurry and burn; Simon McBurney's Herr Knock chomps the head off a bird; a pointy black shape enshadows a town, and bloody mouths scream in terror.
Although we're not provided with a clear picture of Bill Skarsg?rd's Orlock, he does take up several seconds of screen time - joined by a wolf in one scene. Willem Dafoe's moustachioed Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz then deliciously declares: "We are here encountering the vampire... Nosferatu!"
Will what happen in the new Nosferatu?
An official Focus Features synopsis describes Nosferatu as "a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake".
Who is in the cast?
Daughter of Johnny Depp, The Idol star Lily-Rose portrays the aforementioned young woman Ellen in the movie, who will be simultaneously entranced and chilled to the bone by a menacing undead nobleman.
Fresh from leading another Dracula project, Renfield, Nicholas Hoult is onboard as Ellen's husband and real estate agent Thomas Hutter here, while The Crow actor Skarsg?rd straps on the fangs as Orlock (nicknamed 'The Bird of Death' in the 1922 original).
28 Years Later cast member Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Deadpool & Wolverine's Emma Corrin are down as the couple Friedrich and Anna Harding. The former is a wealthy ship merchant, while Anna is loosely based on the Dracula character Lucy Westenra.
Meanwhile, Eggers regular Ralph Ineson (who appeared in both The Witch and The Northman) was handed the part of hospital director Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, alongside McBurney's feral Knock; another real estate worker brainwashed by the eponymous monster. And of course we also have Dafoe as this story's version of occult scientist Abraham Van Helsing.
Nosferatu comes to cinemas on Christmas Day.
