Robert Eggers is having quite the moment these days. With his newest horror film, The Lighthouse, being the toast of film festivals from Cannes to Toronto to the recent London Film Festival, and even earning Oscar buzz, he has more capital than even following his debut smash hit, The Witch.
At this point on the indie circuit, he could make almost anything he wants, which clearly includes his newly announced original project, The Northman. This new film also appears set to bring him back into collaboration with The Witch star Anya Taylor-Joy and The Lighthouse’s Willem Dafoe.
The upcoming movie, which will apparently delve into the mythology and mystery of Vikings, is set-up at New Regency and, according to Deadline, is already in talks with a star-studded cast that includes Dafoe, Taylor-Joy, Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, and It Chapter Two’s Bill Skarsgård.
The negotiations are ongoing, but the film is something Eggers has been planning for a while, as he has already co-written it with Icelandic poet and novelist, Sjón. Set during the turn of the 10th century, it is currently unclear if The Northman would even qualify as a horror movie or if it might be something wholly original and more dramatic.
This news confirms Dafoe’s appreciation for Eggers. In a recent interview with Den Of Geek US, the Oscar-nominated actor told our US chums he has tried to work with Eggers on a series of projects that hadn’t quite come together.
Currently, Eggers and Dafoe are enjoying a rapturous reception for The Lighthouse, which came at least as a partial shock to Eggers, who said, “I’m super, super shocked that so far it has not been more divisive, because… this movie is quite grotesque.”
Many awards prognosticators are speculating that Dafoe will get his fifth Oscar nomination for the film, in the Best Supporting Actor category. In the movie, Dafoe plays an elder “wickie” (lighthouse keeper) who has a fanatical devotion to his lighthouse. He views it as having some type of supernatural power. Robert Pattinson plays a young new assistant, who is less than bedazzled by this line of work. At least at first.
The Lighthouse opens in UK cinemas on 31 January 2020. The Northman is presumably some years off, but it’s already one to watch out for.
