Robert Eggers To Direct Modern A Christmas Carol Movie

The Empire morning news sweep was dead: to begin with. There was no doubt whatever about that. And then we saw reports coming in from Deadline that Robert Eggers — architect of The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman, and Nosferatu — has signed on to write and direct a fresh take on A Christmas Carol at Warner Bros. And not only that, but the state-of-the-art day master of horror is penning his retelling of Charles Dickens’ timeless festive ghost story with a very familiar face in mind to play tight-fisted hand at the grindstone Ebenezer Scrooge: Willem Dafoe.

Now, Deadline are quick to caveat the Dafoe talk with an acknowledgment that no negotiations have officially begun as of yet with talent to star in Eggers’ movie. Still, with Dafoe having starred in three of Eggers’ first four movies, the duo clearly matching each others’ freak as the kids might say, it isn’t difficult to imagine the four-time Oscar nominee returning to Victorian England to play fiction’s most notable miser. It also, it’s worth stating, not actually difficult to picture Eggers making A Christmas Carol. Sure, he probably won’t go down the Muppet route (boo!) with his interpretation of Dickens’ tale of regret, redemption, and singularly spooky apparitions, but he may well prove just the man to really unlock the story’s Gothic and supernatural elements on the huge screen — and he already has access to a substantial wardrobe of Victorian garb thanks to Nosferatu. (We’re sure that’s how wardrobing works, right? Right?)

A Christmas Carol marks the third exhilarating (as-yet-undated) addition to Eggers’ upcoming slate in recent months, joining medieval werewolf feature Werwulf and a sequel to Jim Henson’s dim fantasy classic Labyrinth. They say you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, but you definitely can at least make a few movies without breaking Eggers. God bless us, every one!