Harry Styles nearly followed in the footsteps of Robert Pattinson and Anya Taylor-Joy.
In a lengthy, incredibly illuminating profile of director Robert Eggers for The New Yorker (ahead of the release of his Viking epic “The Northman,” out later this month), it was revealed that Harry Styles was scheduled to be a part of Eggers’ remake of “Nosferatu,” starring Anya Taylor-Joy. But, alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
The article says that Styles had to drop out due to scheduling concerns. He appeared briefly in Marvel Studios’ “Eternals” last year and has a role in Olivia Wilde’s upcoming “Booksmart” follow-up “Don’t Worry Darling” alongside Florence Pugh and Chris Pine. Styles is releasing a new album in May and then going on an international tour, which may have conflicted with the intended “Nosferatu” shooting dates.
According to the New Yorker profile, Eggers’ cinematographer Jarin Blaschke had already enrolled his daughter in school in Prague when Styles dropped out.
It’s unclear if the project, a remake of the 1922 classic, is still going forward, especially considering how tricky Taylor-Joy’s schedule currently is. Among other thingsm she is starring in “Furiosa,” George Miller’s next installment in his “Mad Max” franchise, and an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s 1932 novel “Laughter in the Dark” from her “Queen’s Gambit” director Scott Frank.
The silent, black-and-white original “Nosferatu” from German filmmaker F. W. Murnau, has been remade before. In 1979 Werner Herzog’s “Nosferatu the Vampyre” was released starring Herzog’s frequent collaborator Klaus Kinski alongside Bruno Ganz and Isabelle Adjani. And filmmaker David Lee Fisher raised funds on Kickstarter for a remake, using digital sets and with Doug Jones reportedly playing the vampire (a kind of licensing-free version of Dracula).
Hopefully more “Nosferatu” news will be coming soon.