Robert Eggers has set his next film, and it marks his first direct engagement with Shakespeare after years of drawing on horror, folklore and Norse myth. Focus Features has won a competitive bidding war for the director’s adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet,” beating out A24, Sony and Warner Bros. for the project, according to a person familiar with the deal.
The film will keep Eggers within the Focus fold that has distributed nearly his entire filmography, including “The Northman” and “Nosferatu” domestically and “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse” internationally. Eggers will both direct and produce, though no other producers or cast members have been disclosed. Sources say the agreement is valued in the high tens of millions, covering filmmaker and talent fees along with the production budget. Focus declined to comment, and Eggers does not yet have a formal deal in place with the studio, though the two sides have worked together on every one of his features to date.
True to Eggers’ reputation for exhaustive period research, the production is expected to feature dialogue rendered in Old English rather than a modernized script, according to sources familiar with the plans. The approach would set this take apart from prior big-screen versions of the Shakespeare tragedy, including Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, which leaned into a contemporary setting and grossed $147 million worldwide.
“Romeo and Juliet” is slated to become Eggers’ next film after “Werwulf,” his upcoming period horror project starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe and Lily-Rose Depp, which opens Christmas Day. That timing suggests other long-gestating Eggers projects, including a sequel to “Labyrinth” for TriStar Pictures and The Jim Henson Company, along with a planned adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” will be pushed further down his production pipeline.
Eggers’ last film, “Nosferatu,” became his highest-grossing release to date at nearly $182 million worldwide and earned four Oscar nominations in craft categories, a commercial and critical breakthrough that has made studios eager to back his next move, however unexpected the subject matter.
