Movies Robert Eggers' Nosferatu bites down on Christmas 2024 release date The vampire tale stars Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp, and Nicholas Hoult. By Clark Collis Clark Collis Senior Writer EW's editorial guidelines Published on November 28, 2023 02:23PM EST Robert Eggers' vampire film Nosferatu had the kind of lengthy gestation period which might cause even an immortal bloodsucker raise an eyebrow, but Focus Features announced today that the horror movie will finally be released on Dec. 25, 2024. Eggers' film is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her. The writer-director's new version of filmmaker F.W. Murnau's 1922 horror classic stars Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney and Willem Dafoe, with whom Eggers' previously worked on 2019's The Lighthouse and 2022's The Northman. Focus Features "The audacious filmmaking of Robert Eggers is always a gift for fans, and we can promise that his Nosferatu is planning quite the Christmas feast," Focus Features Chairman Peter Kujawski was quoted as saying as part of the release date announcement. Eggers initially struck a deal to make Nosferatu eight years ago, following the premiere of the director's first film, The Witch, at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, but that iteration of the project subsequently fell apart. In Eggers' Nosferatu, IT star Skarsgård portrays the vampire Count Orlok who hungers for Depp’s Ellen Hutter. In the 1922 film, the aristocratic bloodsucker was portrayed by Max Schreck who Dafoe played in 2000's Shadow of the Vampire. "It was an indie horror in its day, a bit rough around the edges — yet it's one of the greatest and most haunting films ever made," Eggers said of Murnau's film in a 2016 interview with Shudder. "The newly restored color-tinted versions are really impressive, but I still prefer the poor black and white versions made from scraps of 16mm prints. Those grimy versions have an uncanny mystery to them and helped build the myth of Max Schreck being a real vampire." Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more. Related content: We could've had a Nosferatu movie with Harry Styles! Harry Styles would not have played a vampire in Robert Eggers' new version of Nosferatu The Witch star Anya Taylor-Joy gives update on Nosferatu remake Bill Skarsgard's It smile is just as terrifying without makeup