Christmas comes early for horror fans with this news. Deadline reports that director Robert Eggers and Warner Bros. have a new adaptation of Charles Dickens‘ “A Christmas Carol” in the works. And while no one’s officially cast yet, insiders say Eggers wants Willem Dafoe on board as his Ebenezer Scrooge. If Dafoe joins the project, it’ll be his fourth movie with the director, after “The Lighthouse,” “The Northman,” and last year’s “Nosferatu.”
This project may come as a shock to those familiar with Eggers’ filmography. On closer inspection, however, it’s a sound choice for the horror auteur and works well within Eggers’ thematic paradigm. Dickens’ novella is a period piece, a ghost story, and features a main character whose materialist worldview gradually gets overrun by irruptions of esoteric forces and the supernatural. “A Christmas Carol” will also see Eggers adapt a work for the third time in his career, after “Nosferatu” and “The Northman.” And there’s been more film and TV adaptation of Dickens’ story over the years than “Nosferatu”/”Dracula” ones, so Eggers will have plenty of works to reference.
But the most intriguing aspect here? “A Christmas Carol” uses its supernatural elements to tell a story of redemption, Christian charity, and goodwill. That will no doubt lend Eggers’ esoteric interests a much different dynamic than his fans are familiar with, and it’ll be exciting to see how he approaches Dickens’ work. Set in Victorian-era London, “A Christmas Carol” follows the personal reckoning of miserly curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge over one Christmas Eve night after four ghosts visit him. Under the tutelage of the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, Scrooge greets Christmas morning as a kinder, gentler man, reconciling with his life and family in the process.
But after so many film and TV adaptations of “A Christmas Carol,” why does Warner Bros. want to remake it again? There’s an easy answer there: big box office numbers. Eggers is coming off the biggest commercial success of his career in “Nosferatu,” which made $181 million worldwide and $95 million domestically; and it opened theatrically on Christmas. Warner Bros. no doubt believes Eggers could replicate those numbers, if not surpass them, with his rendition of Dickens’ story. Add in the critical success “Nosferatu” garnered and its four Oscar nods, and this project is a no-brainer for the studio.
But Eggers’ “A Christmas Carol” probably won’t hit theaters for at least two Christmases. That’s because Focus Features plans to release “Werwulf,” Eggers’ next project, in theaters on Christmas Day 2026. Eggers plans to shoot “Werwulf” later this year, so it’s safe to expect “A Christmas Carol” won’t leave development until late next year. And then there’s Eggers’ “Labyrinth” remake, too, which he may shoot after “Werwulf,” but that’s still undetermined.
Still, Eggers doing Dickens is a smart match by Warner Bros., and the box office success of “A Christmas Carol” is all but guaranteed. Stay tuned to see if Dafoe gets cast as Scrooge and if Eggers casts any of his other regulars (Ralph Ineson as Jacob Marley, anyone?).
