After breaking out in his psychological thriller “The Witch,” Anya Taylor-Joy is looking to reteam with director Robert Eggers on his new take on a cinematic classic.

Sources tell Variety that the “Split” actress is in negotiations to star in Studio 8’s remake of “Nosferatu.”

Eggers is writing and directing the pic. The 1922 silent movie followed the vampire Count Orlok of Transylvania, who wants to buy a house in Germany and becomes enamored of the real-estate agent’s wife. It was an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” and Werner Herzog directed a 1979 remake.

Chris Columbus and Eleanor Columbus will produce.

Eggers has already signed a deal with Studio 8 and is attached to direct “The Knight” for the studio. Jon Silk brought the “Nosferatu” project to Studio 8.

Eggers wanted to reteam with Taylor-Joy on the film early in the process, but after she became a bona fide movie star in M. Night Shyamalan’s hit “Split,” the young actress’ schedule has filled up. She is currently filming Josh Boone’s X-Men film “New Mutants” and is also signed on for the “Split” and “Unbreakable” sequel “Glass,” which also stars James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Taylor-Joy is repped by CAA and Troika.

The Witch and The Lighthouse filmmaker Robert Eggers, whose new Viking revenge movie The Northman is releasing this year, has been attached to direct a new take on the classic horror movie Nosferatu for a while now. In fact, it was announced all the way back in 2017 that Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, The Northman) would be starring in that upcoming movie.

Today brings the latest update on the Robert Eggers Nosferatu project, with The New Yorker revealing in a profile piece on Eggers that production on the film was recently halted.

The New Yorker writes, “Eggers was supposed to be in Prague. The previous week, he had been scheduled to move there to begin preparing a remake of Nosferatu, F. W. Murnau’s silent vampire film, from 1922. The new version featured Taylor-Joy, who also starred in The Witch, and Harry Styles. But, at the last minute, Styles pulled out, citing scheduling concerns. Jarin Blaschke, Eggers’s cinematographer, had already enrolled his daughter in school in Prague.”

The article isn’t clear on precisely when Nosferatu was to begin filming or what the current state of the production is, but it does seem to suggest there has at least been a delay.

Previously, we had never heard of Harry Styles being attached to the film.

Stay tuned for more as we learn it.

Eggers mused about Nosferatu with Bloody Disgusting back in 2019, “I mean, that movie [Nosferatu] is really important to me for many reasons, but I think Nosferatu is closer to the folk vampire. The vampire played by Max Schreck is a combination of the folk vampire, of the literary vampire that actually has its roots in England before Germany, and also [has roots in] Albin Grau, the producer/production designer’s occultist theories on vampires. So he’s not a traditional folk vampire but it’s much closer to that than Stoker, even though obviously Stoker is using a lot of folklore that he’s researched to create his vampire. But Dracula is finally much more an extension of the literary vampire that was started by John Polidori, based on Byron.”

The 1922 silent movie followed the vampire Count Orlok, who wants to buy a house in Germany and becomes enamored with the real-estate agent’s wife. It was an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” and Werner Herzog directed a 1979 remake.

Director Robert Eggers and acting legend Willem Dafoe play well together. Due to their having worked so perfectly on both 2019's "The Lighthouse" and Focus Features' forthcoming Viking epic "The Northman" (where Dafoe plays a court jester), we would love to see the two talents reconvene for a third time on Eggers' long-planned remake of "Nosferatu." /Film had the opportunity to speak to Eggers for the bloody — and bloody fantastic — new film, and he confirmed that, yes, should the stars align, this re-team will indeed happen.

But hold the phone for a second ... Dafoe may not play the evil vampire Count Orlok, originated by Max Schrek and then later played by Klaus Kinski in Werner Herzog's 1979 remake. That casting choice would be extra amazing considering that Dafoe previously played a highly fictionalized version of Schreck for the 2000 horror satire "Shadow of the Vampire" opposite John Malkovich as "Nosferatu" director F.W. Murnau. Judging by his sly, silent smile when I brought up said connection, Eggers is very aware of the ironic value of such casting ... or recasting, as it might be.

When I asked Robert Eggers about his in-development "Nosferatu" remake and the potential of having Willem Dafoe be a part of it, here is what he had to say:

"'Nosferatu' is such an incredibly important film and story for me, so it's always percolating. If Willem ... if 'Nosferatu' is made, Willem better damn well be in it because I just love working with him ... but, you know, maybe he would play Ellen? Who knows."

So there you go. While it's not a done deal yet, it does sound like if Eggers has his way he'll be working with the star again should it get the green light (and we pray it does). As for whether Dafoe would step into Max Schreck's shoes once again as Count Orlok remains to be seen. As of now, Anya Taylor-Joy is the only confirmed cast member for Eggers' "Nosferatu." It was recently revealed that Harry Styles was at one point going to be in the movie but had to drop out just as prep was happening in Prague.

EXCLUSIVE: Robert Eggers long awaited new take on the Nosferatu tale looks to be gaining some serious momentum as sources tell Deadline Bill Skarsgard is attached to play the titular character and Lily-Rose Depp is in talks to co-star. The pic is now set up at Focus Features with Eggers directing and penning the script. Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Robert Eggers, Chris Columbus and Eleanor Columbus.

In the new reimagining, the pic is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Depp) in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire (Skarsgard) who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him. Focus had no comment on the project.

The film has been a passion project of Eggers for years and came close to coming together in 2019 with Anya Taylor-Joy and Harry Styles at Studio 8. The film was put on pause as Studio 8 figured out a budget and talent schedules. Eggers would ultimately pushed paused on the movie and moved on to his Viking pic The Northman, which bowed earlier this year.

After The Northman bowed earlier this year, Eggers started looking at other projects but always had his eye on coming back to the gothic tale and once Focus came aboard he officially made it his next film and began meeting with talent. Skarsgard has been loosely attached to play Eggers’ new take on the 19th Century monster going back to when he was developing the project with Styles and Taylor-Joy and quickly got Skarsgard to slot the pic into his schedule before it got filled up.

Taylor-Joy has become one of the busier movie stars in town and couldn’t fit the film into that busy schedule, leaving an opening for the role of the female protagonist at the center of the story. Following a number of meetings, Depp would emerge as Eggers’ top choice for the role.

EXCLUSIVE: Nicholas Hoult is in negotiations to join the ensemble of Robet Eggers next pic, Nosferatu, which Focus Features is producing. Bill Skarsgard is attached to play the titular character, with Lily-Rose Depp also in talks to star. Eggers is directing and penning the script. Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Robert Eggers, Chris Columbus and Eleanor Columbus are producing.

In the new reimagining, Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Depp) in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire (Skarsgard) who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him. Focus had no comment on the project.

It is unknown who Hoult would be playing.

The film has been a passion project of Eggers’ for years and came close to coming together in 2019 with Anya Taylor-Joy and Harry Styles at Studio 8. The film was put on pause as Studio 8 figured out a budget and talent schedules. Eggers ultimately pushed pause on the movie and moved on to his Viking pic The Northman, which bowed in April.

After The Northman, Eggers started looking at other projects but always had his eye on coming back to the gothic tale. Once Focus came aboard, he officially made Nosferatu his next film and began meeting with talent with Hoult being one of his top choices to join the film.

EXCLUSIVE: Robert Eggers and his Lighthouse star Willem Dafoe have found their next project to collaborate on as Dafoe is in talks to join Eggers’ Nosferatu movie at Focus Features. Lily Rose-Depp, Bill Skarsgard and Nicholas Hoult are already on board with Eggers writing and directing. Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Robert Eggers, Chris Columbus and Eleanor Columbus are producing.

In the new reimagining, Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Depp) in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire (Skarsgard) who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him. Focus had no comment on the project. It is unknown who Dafoe will be playing.

Not only does the project reunite Eggers and Dafoe, who worked together on The Lighthouse and The Northman, the project is a full circle moment for Dafoe who earned an Oscar nomination playing the Nosferatu creature in Shadow of a Vampire.

When he released The Witch in 2016, Robert Eggers proved himself as a filmmaker with an innate ability to chill your very bones. Conjuring up nightmare images, a suffocating sense of sheer dread, and a tone of Earthy naturalism that made his creation feel all-too-real, Eggers’ horror debut already looms large over the genre. And while his follow-ups The Lighthouse and The Northman had their deeply unsettling moments (plenty of them, in fact), they weren’t full-blown horror movies. Get ready to steady your nerves, though – because his fourth feature is about to crawl under your skin and stay there. His much-anticipated remake of Nosferatu – F. W. Murnau’s none-more-influential 1922 vampire classic, re-iterated upon in 1979 by Werner Herzog – is being readied for 2024. And make no mistake: it’s Eggers back on the horror beat.

Rather than a mere sprinkling of horror inflections, Eggers is confident in what his Nosferatu sets out to do. “Yeah, it’s a scary film. It’s a horror movie. It’s a Gothic horror movie,” he tells Empire in the 2024 Preview issue, featuring the world-first look at the film. “And I do think that there hasn’t been an old-school Gothic movie that’s actually scary in a while. And I think that the majority of audiences will find this one to be the case.” It won’t just be viewers experiencing pure terror – as seen above, Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen Hutter, the wife of Nicholas Hoult’s estate agent Thomas, will be petrified by the power of the bloodthirsty Count Orlok. “It’s even more Ellen’s story than previous versions,” teases Eggers. “And Lily-Rose is absolutely phenomenal.”

The one causing that reaction of utter, wide-eyed shock? Bill Skarsgård, once again pushing the limits of human performance to conjure a creature all his own. “I’ll say that Bill has so transformed, I’m fearful that he might not get the credit that he deserves because he’s just… he’s not there,” Eggers says. While it’s Skarsgård’s own spin on the Count, there will be echoes of past incarnations too, both Max Schreck’s and Klaus Kinski’s versions. “He felt like honouring who had come before him. It’s all very subtle,” Eggers explains. “But I think the main thing is that he’s even more a folk vampire. In my opinion he looks like a dead Transylvanian nobleman, and in a way that we’ve never actually seen what an actual dead Transylvanian nobleman would look like and be dressed like.” Buckle up, and bolt your windows and doors – a brand new Robert Eggers nightmare is about to unfold.

Willem Dafoe may look like he's on his own in EW's exclusive first look at his character from the horror film Nosferatu, but writer-director Robert Eggers reveals that the scene, which involves a tomb surrounded by flames, found the actor working with many costars.

"That sequence, aside from having real flames, had 2,000 real rats," says the filmmaker, who has now worked with Dafoe across three projects: 2019's The Lighthouse, 2022's The Northman, and this new film coming out next year. "Which was challenging but also fun."

Dafoe plays a vampire hunter named Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz in Eggers' Prague-shot take on director F.W. Murnau's 1922 horror classic. That film was itself an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula and was previously remade by Werner Herzog as 1979's Nosferatu the Vampyre. While the character from Murnau's film upon which Eggers based Dafoe's professor is on the periphery of the action, the director says he amped up Von Franz to be a "crazy vampire hunter" — a character, he says, "I've always loved and related to."

Eggers describes his period tale, which is set in both Transylvania and Germany, as a tale concerning "a haunted woman who's tormented by a terrifying vampire." That vampire is called Count Orlok and is played by Bill Skarsgård, whose brother Alexander starred as Eggers' lead Viking in The Northman. Bill is best known for playing, under a good deal of makeup, the clown-monster Pennywise in the It films. Eggers explains that the Swedish actor underwent an even more extreme makeover for his performance as Orlok.

"Aside from his eyes, it’s hard to find Bill," the director says. "I’m trying to not give too much away, but Bill totally transforms into something that is very unique." Eggers does let on that the actor worked with an opera coach to lower his voice an octave. "People are going to think it’s all digital tampering, but he put in the work," the filmmaker continues. "I’m super excited to see what audiences make of Bill Skarsgård's Count Orlok."

The film's heroine, Ellen Hutter, is played by The Idol star Lily-Rose Depp, while Nicholas Hoult from TV show The Great and this year's vampire comedy Renfield portrays her husband Thomas. "In many ways, he's the damsel in distress in this story," Eggers says of Hoult's role. "The main thing that makes this different from the other versions of Nosferatu is that it focuses much more on Lily-Rose’s character Ellen."

Eggers chose Aaron Taylor-Johnson and The Crown actress Emma Corrin to play another couple, Friedrich and Anna Harding. The director says Friedrich is friends with Hutter in the original Nosferatu but is much more fleshed out in this film. "In the Murnau version, he is with his sister Ruth, but here he has his wife, and their relationship is much more complex and integral to the story," Eggers explains.

The cast also includes Ralph Ineson, who appeared in both The Witch and The Northman. Eggers describes his character, Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, as "in many ways the Watson to Willem Dafoe’s Holmes."

That starry ensemble, however, almost looked very different. Over the last decade, Eggers twice attempted to get his Nosferatu into production only to have things fall apart before the start of filming. The director initially thought of Bill Skarsgård for the role ultimately played by Hoult. Other actors in the frame to portray roles over the years included Harry Styles and The Witch star Anya Taylor-Joy, who was ultimately unable to appear in the movie for scheduling reasons. Remarkably, Eggers never gave up hope — or, at least, didn't do so for too long.

"The second time it fell apart, I thought, Clearly, this movie is not supposed to be made," he admits, with a laugh. "I don’t necessarily think everything happens for a reason, but the way the film turned out with this incredible cast is the kind of thing that makes you wonder if everything does happen for a reason."

Nosferatu is scheduled for release in theaters Dec. 25, 2024.