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Robert Eggers has asserted himself as one of modern cinema’s most respected genre filmmakers. From his feature directorial debut The Witch to his most recent hit take on the Dracula mythos, Nosferatu, he has earned his place in horror history over the last decade. That being the case, one might be excited to learn that Eggers was, at one time, trying to make a Frankenstein movie. However, if Eggers is to be taken at his word, it’s probably best that he moved on from the project.
In a recent episode of Conversations @ Curzon, Eggers was promoting Nosferatu. During the conversation with host Douglas Greenwood, The Northman director revealed that he was, at one point, writing his own take on Mary Shelley’s classic 1818 novel Frankenstein. Eggers abandoned the venture after just two weeks though, believing he had a dud on his hands. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“Sometimes you know you’ve got a dud. I’m super, super-excited for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, but when my son was born, I had an unconscious urge – I’m sure because of that – I started to do Frankenstein, and after two weeks, I was like, ‘There’s no way I can do this.’ So I’m glad that Guillermo is finally making it.”
Shelley’s novel has been adapted many times over the years, most famously by director James Whale in the form of 1931’s Frankenstein, which became a staple of the classic Universal Monsters films. Many other directors have put their stamp on the material over the years, with varying results.
As Eggers alludes to, Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim, The Shape of Water) has his long-awaited Frankenstein hitting theaters and Netflix later this year. Eggers, like so many of us, is very excited about that movie. He wasn’t nearly as excited about his take on the material. When pressed by Greenwood about his take, Eggers simply replied, “No comment” before adding, “It definitely sucked, I’ll tell you that.”
While that may be hard to believe, the result was the same. Eggers eventually moved on to other projects. For what it’s worth, everything worked out pretty well. Nosferatu has been making a killing at the box office and was met with praise by critics. The filmmaker was well suited to the material, it seems. Who knows? Maybe as more time passes, he’ll circle back around to Frankenstein’s monster. For now though, he seems pretty confident that this was best left alone.
Nosferatu is in theaters now. For more, check out Fango’s interview with Robert Eggers in honor of Nosferatu.
