Robert Eggers has apparently decided that Nosferatu did not give him enough doomed romance to work with. His movies have never been especially kind to people in love, and his next project seems unlikely to improve that track record. At least this time, audiences will know exactly how badly things end before they buy a ticket.

First, he still has a werewolf to unleash. Werwulf arrives in theaters this Christmas, reuniting Eggers with Nosferatu stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Lily-Rose Depp. After that, he’s trading one familiar tragedy for another.

Eggers is developing a new adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Focus Features won a bidding war against A24, Sony, and Warner Bros. for the project, which is intended to be his next movie after Werwulf. Eggers is attached to direct and produce, although the deal has yet to close. No cast or release date has been announced.

‘Romeo and Juliet’ Could Be a Perfect Fit for Robert Eggers

Eggers has already shown what he can do with a familiar story. His Nosferatu returned to a century-old vampire tale and found room for desire, dread, and tragedy without treating the material as a museum piece. Romeo and Juliet gives him a different sort of doomed relationship, with two young people whose romance becomes more dangerous every time the adults around them intervene. If anyone can make the audience briefly hope they might survive a story with one of the most famous endings ever written, Eggers might be the one to do it.

Sources reportedly say that the actors will speak in “Olde English,” though it remains unclear what that means for the finished movie. Shakespeare’s dialogue already presents a challenge for actors and audiences, and Eggers has never been afraid to ask either to meet a period piece on its own terms. The filmmaker’s attention to language and historical detail could make this adaptation feel considerably different from the versions that have come before it. For now, the reported approach is the only indication of how he plans to tell the story.

Of course, Romeo and Juliet has made it to the screen many times already. Franco Zeffirelli directed the 1968 movie, while Baz Luhrmann brought the story into a modern setting for 1996’s Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. Eggers now faces the difficult part of adapting something almost everyone recognizes: finding a reason to make its familiar heartbreak feel immediate again. His take is still early in development, so audiences may have to wait a while to find out what he has in mind.

via Collider