Robert Eggers Tackling ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Adaptation as Focus Wins Bidding War (Exclusive)

After tackling witches, vampires and werewolves, Robert Eggers is tackling perhaps the scariest of monsters: teenage love. Eggers is setting up an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at Focus Features, which has come out on top of a bidding war that included A24, Sony and Warner Bros. When deals close, it will reteam Eggers with the Universal specialty arm that released his 2024 surprise hit Nosferatu and will be releasing his latest, Werwulf. Eggers will direct the feature and produce. It was not immediately clear who else was producing or executive producing. As befitting a filmmaker who is known for his meticulous attention to detail in capturing a time period, even when it comes to dialogue, sources say that this adaptation will feature actors speaking in Olde English. A tragic romance, Shakespeare’s play told the ill-fated story of the titular young lovers who hail from two warring families, the Capulets and the Montagues, in the city of Verona, Italy. Written in the 1590s, it has been one of the Bard’s more enduring and famous plays and has consistently attracted cinematic attention. Among the more notable productions have been the 1968 iteration directed by Franco Zeffirelli and the 1996’s Romeo + Juliet, Baz Lurhman’s modern take (Verona Beach, anyone?) that starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. While numbers were not revealed, sources say the deal for the project is in the high-seventy millions, which will include filmmaker and talent fees as well as the budget for the production. Romeo and Juliet is intended to be Eggers’ next production. Focus had no comment. While he doesn’t have a deal with Focus, Eggers has consistently set up films at the studio division. The company, run by Peter Kujawski, has released and worked with Eggers on all his films, including The Northman, and his earlier movies, The Witch and The Lighthouse. (Focus handled international distribution through Universal International for The Lighthouse.) Eggers’ latest, Werwulf, reunites him with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Lily Rose Depp, who both starred in Nosferatu, in a unique and arty-looking take on the werewolf horror story. Like Nosferatu, it is set for a Christmas Day theatrical opening. Eggers is repped by WME and Frankfurt Kurnit.