Robert Eggers has halted work on another straight horror project to pursue a screen adaptation of & Juliet, a move that shifts his immediate creative focus away from the bleak material of his recent films.
The director raised the plan during a post-screening question and answer session for Werwulf, explaining the change as a deliberate tonal reset. He said the horror draft he was working on after Werwulf "got so dark again," and offered a blunt summary of his thinking: "I was doing something else. But what happened was, after Werwulf, I was writing another horror movie, and it got so dark again, and I was like, 'I need a break. So, I'll do something about two teenagers killing themselves.'"
Concrete details on Eggers' Romeo & Juliet are limited. Reports indicate he would direct and produce, and that he is eyeing a return to Focus Features, the studio behind several of his earlier films. That potential reunion has drawn interest from competing companies, though sources say no formal deal has been completed and terms remain under negotiation.
Werwulf, which opens on Christmas Day, finds a man and his family besieged by a ravenous beast in 14th century England. The cast includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson. The film extends Eggers' recent streak of period-set, atmospheric work and will likely frame how critics and the industry read his pivot toward Shakespeare.
Eggers has collaborated with the same studio on multiple projects, including The Lighthouse in 2019 and Nosferatu in 2024, making a Focus return a logical next step if negotiations succeed. For now the Romeo & Juliet project is in its early stages, creative specifics are being kept under wraps, and a formal production agreement has not been announced.
