Tis the season to be jolly! Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu was a Christmas treat for his fans last year, and now the director is returning to the holiday. Deadline reports Eggers and Warner Bros. are teaming up for a new take on Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. While there’s no official casting, Eggers is expected to turn to a familiar face, Willem Dafoe to play Ebenezer Scrooge.
Dafoe and Eggers are joined at the hip, having worked together three times already on The Lighthouse, The Northman, and Nosferatu. This might seem like an unusual project to tackle, though, until you look at it a bit closer. Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a ghost story, where supernatural forces disrupt the life of a cold-hearted miser who cares more about money than the people around him. It’s also a period piece, which all of Eggers’ films have been up to this point.
Eggers has had a loyal fan following since his breakout feature, The Witch, in 2015 (!!!), but he’s been quietly gaining at the box office, as well. Each film has earned more than the last, with Nosferatu topping out at $181M. It’s obvious why WB wants to work with him on A Christmas Carol even though it’s been remade and adapted more than almost any movie ever.
All of that said, Eggers has a lot on his plate. His next film, Werewulf, is set to shoot this Fall, and he also has a sequel to Labyrinth in the works.
