Aaron Taylor-Johnson Joins Robert Eggers‘ ’Nosferatu’

Aaron Taylor-Johnson has joined Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Emma Corrin and Willem Dafoe in Focus Features’ Nosferatu, written and directed by Robert Eggers (The Northman).

Production has begun in Prague on the film, in which Skarsgård is set to play the titular vampire character in the reboot of the 1922 classic horror pic by German director F. W. Murnau.

Eggers’ Nosferatu will retell the Gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.

Jeff Robinov, who originally developed Eggers’ remake at his Studio 8 banner, will produce along with John Graham, Eggers, Chris Columbus and Eleanor Columbus. Earlier remakes of the Dracula tale loosely based on Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel include Werner Herzog’s 1979 pic Nosferatu the Vampyre.

The original Nosferatu film was an unauthorized adaptation of Stoker‘s Dracula. Stoker’s family won a court case, with all copies of the movies ordered to be destroyed, but some prints survived and helped make the film a cult classic.

Focus will distribute the feature domestically while Universal Pictures is handling international.

Taylor-Johnson is currently in post-production as the titular character in Kraven the Hunter and is also filming David Leitch’s The Fall Guy. He most recently starred in Bullet Train, The King’s Man, Tenet and The Outlaw King, and his other credits include Nocturnal Animals, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Savages.

Johnson is represented by WME, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Sloane Weber.