Nosferatu (2020 film)

Nosferatu is an upcoming horror film, set to release on October 30, 2020. It will be a remake/reboot of the 1922 silent horror film of same name. The movie will be directed and produced by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, their second screenplay together, after The Shape of Water. It will star Hugo Weaving, Gary Oldman, Elle Fanning, Michael Shannon, Asa Butterfield and Dafne Keen. The movie will be produced by TSG Entertainment and Double Dare You Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

The film was announced on October 31, 2017, after Paramount bought the rights to produce a new film about the character. Guillermo was confirmed as the director one month later, and Hugo Weaving was announced as Count Orlok on January 2018, with Gary Oldman confirming that he was playing Van Helsing two weeks later.

Synopsis
Set in New York City, on 1958, the story follows a dutch immigrant named Abraham Van Helsing, who came to the US looking for a new life. He then meets Count Karl Orlok, a german businessman and executive who traveled to America so he could expand his business. Abraham starts working for him, and ends up discovering his deepest secrets, including his biggest one: He's a vampire, who wakes up every thirty years to feed himself.

Full Plot
The movie starts with Edward Van Helsing (Gary Oldman) in front of a crowd. He then starts to recite Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, while everybody watches. In the middle of the group, there is a little girl with black hair and a pink dress. As Edward finishes, the crowd starts to clap, including the little girl. He smiles, and goes off the improvised stage, hugging the girl, his daughter, Julia (Dafne Keen). They talk for a while, with Edward mentioning the opportunities they will get when they arrive at the United States. They laugh, and sleep.

As the sun rises, the ship where they were traveling arrives at New York, alongside another, bigger ship. As Van Helsing and his daughter come out of the ship, Edward looks to the side, and makes eye contact with a strange, bearded man with a suit. It's his first encounter with Count Karl Orlok (Hugo Weaving), who had just arrived at America as well. Orlok is surrounded by his henchmen and businessman, with a blonde woman using a formal dress on his side. It's Laura Gable (Elle Fanning), his right-hand woman. They walk to a hotel, while Edward goes with his daughter to a house that they rented. While talking to Laura, Orlok mentions Edward, calling him a "strange, but good-looking and confident man". He demands that Laura finds Edward, and hire him.

On the following day, while Julia goes to school, Edward starts walking around New York, looking for a job. He is stopped by Laura on the street, who calls him for a coffee. They have a conversation, and Edward is hired. He then goes immediately to Orlok's office, to meet him. As he arrives there, Orlok greets him, and they have a conversation. Orlok mentions that Edward reminds him of his father, a hard-working man that did everything to win money and become rich.

in construction

Cast

 * Hugo Weaving as Count Karl Orlok | Nosferatu — The main antagonist and title character, Count Karl Orlok is a german businessman and executive, who's actually a vampire who wakes up every thirty years to feed himself.
 * Gary Oldman as Abraham Van Helsing — A dutch immigrant who came to the US for a new life. He meets Orlok and starts working for him, before discovering everything.
 * Elle Fanning as Laura Gable — The right-hand woman of Orlok, who doesn't know about his real intentions. Later on, she joins Abraham on his battle against Nosferatu.
 * Michael Shannon as Bruce Knight — A businessman and CEO of Knight Enterprises and the rival of Orlok. He joins Abraham on the hope of finding something that could destroy his rival's career.
 * Asa Butterfield as Lucas Knight — The son of Bruce, and heir of Knight Enterprises.
 * Dafne Keen as Julia Van Helsing - The daughter of Abraham, and the love of his life.

Production
A remake of the 1922 classic has been rumored since the late 90's, when 20th Century Fox Pictures firstly expressed interest on buying the rights to the character and producing a new film. Whatever, after months of rumours, nothing happened. In the following years until 2017, various companies have tried to get their hands on the rights for a movie, until Paramount successfully acquired them and immediately announced a new film.

Writing
Writing immediately started after Guillermo del Toro was announced as the director, with del Toro recruiting Vanessa Taylor to write the screenplay. It was written between November 30, 2017 and August 25th, 2018. According to del Toro, three drafts of the screenplay were written, with the first draft taking place on current days instead of 1958. The final script was completed on August 25th, 2018.

Casting
Casting was decided by del Toro. He focused more on casting both Orlok and Van Helsing, making a list of actors that he wanted to play the characters. On the list for Orlok, Josh Brolin, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Jackman and Jack Nicholson were the main choices. On the list for Van Helsing, Ryan Gosling, Gary Oldman, Michael Shannon and Mark Hamill were the main options. Hugo was announced as Orlok on January, and Gary as Van Helsing two weeks later.

Elle Fanning and Michael Shannon were announced on February, and Asa and Dafne were announced on April.

Principal photography
Filming began on October 31, 2018, in New York, Toronto, Berlin and Amsterdam, and wrapped up on February 18, 2019. Re-shoots took place on April and May of 2019.

Soundtrack
The film's score was composed by Alexandre Desplat, on his second movie alongside del Toro.

Tracklist

 * 1) He Comes
 * 2) Night
 * 3) Blood
 * 4) Heads
 * 5) Van Helsing
 * 6) Thou Shalt Not Resist
 * 7) Kill Them All
 * 8) Blessing
 * 9) Laura
 * 10) Light on the Darkness
 * 11) Horror, Horror!
 * 12) Nature's Greatest Creation
 * 13) Nightmare
 * 14) Real Face
 * 15) Blood & Fire
 * 16) Heaven
 * 17) Monologue
 * Yes
 * 1) Final Words
 * 2) Peace
 * 3) The End?

Release
The movie was released on October 29th, 2020 on Brazil, and October 30th, 2020 on the rest of South America, North America, Europe and Oceania. Asia and Africa only received the movie on November 27th, 2020.

Marketing
The first poster for the film was released on January 16th, 2019. The first trailer was released three days later, on January 19th, including the tagline "You can't kill what doesn't die". It was well received by audiences.

The second and final trailer came out nine months later, on October 31, 2019, as a "halloween gift", according to del Toro. It was posted on his twitter, and later, on YouTube. The tagline was: "Let him in".

Home media
The movie was released on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download on March 15th, 2021.

Critical reception
The movie received positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a 93% "Certified Fresh" rating based on 255 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Even though Nosferatu can be considered a different movie, it still does justice to the original classic, with its cinematography, score, del Toro's direction and great acting by all of the cast." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 84 out of 100, based on 60 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". IGN gave the film a 9,2/10 and IMDb holds a score of 9,0/10 according to 284,387 votes.

Critics praised Gary Oldman's acting, with many saying that Oldman made the character feel real to many people, making the audience understand his motivations. Weaving was critically acclaimed for his role as Orlok, with many critics comparing the character to the original Orlok from the 1922 film, and ​​​​with some saying that it was a better character overall.

Audience reception
The movie was well received my audiences, with many fans of the original film praising the movie for having a new story, but still paying homage to the original.

Box office
Nosferatu grossed $78,9 million in the United States and Canada, and $200,9 million on the rest of the world, for a total of $279,8 million.

Possible sequel
After the success of the film, del Toro talked about the possibility of a sequel during an interview: "''It was fun working on this movie. If they called me, I would do a sequel, without a doubt. But it's too soon to talk about that, I guess it's better for us to wait". ''

Hugo Weaving also expressed his interest on returning for a sequel, alongside Gary Oldman. Weaving commented that he pitched an idea for del Toro, of having a sequel with a new Van Helsing fighting Nosferatu, maybe Edward's daughter.

Trivia

 * Paramount originally wanted to partner with Universal Pictures and create their own Monster Universe, but the idea was scrapped.
 * The movie was originally going to take place on current days.
 * Paramount is planning to construct their own universe based on the movie, with a TV series currently in development.
 * Quentin Tarantino was originally planned to direct the movie, but he left the project to develop his next movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
 * The second draft written by del Toro was about three brothers fighting Nosferatu, after they discovered that the vampire killed their parents.

Taglines

 * You can't kill what doesn't die.
 * Let him in.
 * Embrace your nightmare.
 * Open your mind.
 * Let the horror sink in.

Polls
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