Robert Eggers to Adapt Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’: Focus Features Wins Race for His Next Film

American director Robert Eggers, known for gothic horrors such as The Witch, The Lighthouse and Nosferatu, will adapt William Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet for the big screen, The Hollywood Reporter reports. This will be his next directorial project, immediately after Werwulf, which is expected in cinemas this winter.

Focus Features has won the bidding race among rival studios to secure the project — Eggers’ third collaboration with the studio. The fierce race for the film shows the industry’s great interest in his name, especially after the surprise success of Nosferatu, which consolidated him as one of the most distinctive voices of contemporary cinema.

Romeo and Juliet marks a surprising departure for the director, who became famous for dark and atmospheric horror. Yet it is a step that suits his obsession with historical authenticity: as in his previous films, the actors will speak in period English, with the dialect of Shakespeare’s time — a signature of Eggers’ style.

For his fans, this is an intriguing shift: from vampires and witches toward the Bard’s romantic tragedy. But knowing his dedication to historical detail and heavy atmosphere, a Romeo and Juliet in Eggers’ hands promises to be anything but a conventional sweet romance.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter (via Awards Radar)