Robert Eggers Directing ‘Romeo And Juliet’ For Focus Features

Robert Eggers, the filmmaker behind Nosferatu and the upcoming Werwulf, is eyeing a return to Focus Features with a new take on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet that has been competitively sought after, Deadline has confirmed.

Details as to Eggers’ take are under wraps. His deal is not yet finalized, but we understand he’ll direct and produce this version of the classic play. The deal would reunite him with a studio with whom he’s worked across much of his body of work.

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, penned in the mid-1590s, is one of the most performed and most studied works in the Western literary canon. It’s the classic story of two young lovers from feuding Verona families — Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet — whose passionate romance ends in tragedy.

Over the decades, Romeo and Juliet has of course been adapted many times for the screen. The most famous examples would be the 1968 film from Franco Zeffirelli, which won two Academy Awards, and Baz Luhrmann’s bold 1996 modernization Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, which contemporized the story while retaining Shakespeare’s original Elizabethan English dialogue.

Romeo and Juliet marks a departure in genre for Eggers, who in recent years, has devoted himself to the monster flick. His most recent film, Focus Features’ vampire horror Nosferatu — inspired by the F. W. Murnau classic — scored Oscar nominations in four craft categories and was also a major commercial success. It was in fact Eggers’ top-grossing film to date at nearly $182M worldwide. Eggers’ next film is Focus’ Werwulf, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a farmer turned werewolf in 14th century England, which opens in the U.S. on Christmas Day. Among his other upcoming projects is a previously announced Labyrinth sequel for TriStar Pictures and The Jim Henson Company.

News of Eggers’ Romeo and Juliet was first reported by THR.