Robert Eggers, best known for his fresh takes on stories like Nosferatu and the upcoming Werwulf, is to direct an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet for Focus Features.
There aren’t many more details at this stage, but it’s rumoured to be a high-budget project with A24, Sony and Warner Bros all bidding against Focus to win the film. With the rumoured deal for the project being in the high seventy millions mark (which includes filmmaker and talent fees, as well as the overall budget). All we do know is that Eggers will direct and produce the feature (assuming the deals close) and sources say that the adaptation will feature actors speaking in Olde English, which would be a really fun and fresh take on the classic story.
Read More News
Originally written in the 1590s, Romeo and Juliet has long been one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, with numerous famous adaptations including the 1968 iteration from Franco Zeffirelli and Romeo + Juliet from Baz Luhrmann. It’s set in Verona, Italy and tells the ill-fated story of the titular young lovers who hail from two warring families. Eggers is known for his meticulous attention to detail in capturing a time period, so it will be really interesting to see how this project looks compared to other adaptations too.
Eggers next project, Werwulf, is due to be released later in the year and reunited him with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Lily-Rose Depp (who both starred in his previous success Nosferatu). Before that, he previously directed The Northman, The Witch and The Lighthouse.
