Filmmaker and history enthusiast Robert Eggers is moving from werewolves to Shakespeare next, with an adaptation of Romeo And Juliet.
American cinemas will be getting a particularly hairy Christmas this year, as director Robert Eggers’ Werwulf explores lycanthropic legend with his well-established eye for historical detail.
Immediately after that, though, Eggers is set to take on the Bard. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Nosferatu filmmaker has set up a deal at Focus Features to make a new adaptation of Romeo And Juliet – the story of rival Italian families and doomed young lovers.
It’s another high-profile project for Eggers, with the package of familiar set text and respected filmmaker sparking a bidding war among rival studios; ultimately, Focus beat A24, Sony and Warner Bros with its offer, which is said to be around the $70m mark.
Usually these packages also have stars attached, though who will play Romeo and Juliet hasn’t been announced as yet. Anya Taylor-Joy, Lily Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Robert Pattinson are some of the big-name actors who’ve worked with Eggers in the past, though they’re likely a touch too old to be playing star-crossed teenagers at this stage in their careers.
In an increasingly bleak filmmaking landscape, Eggers is a rare writer-director who’s carved a path through mainstream cinema with his own kinds of movies. The Witch set his stall out in 2015: a folk horror with a commitment to re-creating the feeling of life in the 17th century, its mix of intelligence, shocks, suspense and dark humour played out again in such delights as The Lighthouse (2019), The Northman (2022) and Nosferatu (2024).
The latter, in particular, proved to be an unexpected hit: a sumptuous gothic vampire horror told with a splash of Hammer melodrama.
We’re expecting similarly baroque things from Werwulf, which is set in 14th century England and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, Kate Dickie and Ralph Ineson – yep, all actors Eggers has worked with in the past. He’s set up a little repertory period horror company.
There are no further release details on Eggers’ Romeo And Juliet so far, but we should probably expect it to emerge at some point in 2028 or 2029.
Werwulf is in US cinemas from the 25th December, while UK movie-goers will get it from the 1st January 2027.
