Robert Eggers Is Making a ‘Christmas Carol’ Movie, and Willem Dafoe May Be Scrooge

Over the decades, few stories have been as malleable as Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Story. It’s been a Bill Murray comedy, it’s been a Robert Zemeckis CGI fest, and it’s even been a Muppet movie, just to name a few. Next up for the iconic tale, though, is what we can only assume is a much darker, scarier twist from none other than Robert Eggers.

Deadline reports that the man behind The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman, and last year’s surprise hit Nosferatu, is in talks to write and direct an adaptation of the story for Warner Bros. And, though no cast is attached yet, Eggers is reportedly eyeing frequent collaborator Willem Dafoe to play the lead character of Ebenezer Scrooge.

If you’re like us, your mind is currently trying to figure out what an Eggers version of this story looks like, and it’s not a pretty picture, in the best possible way. Eggers has largely avoided adaptations, instead preferring deep, personal research to inform his own original stories, though that slightly changed with Nosferatu. Next up, he’s co-written and will direct Werwulf, another period horror piece which will focus on—you guessed—werewolves.

When you think about A Christmas Story, though, it’s just so in Eggers’ wheelhouse. There’s the original, period setting, of course. The mix of pathos with fantasy and horror. Lots of opportunities for evocative and beautiful sets, creatures, and costumes. Plus, for Hollywood, it’s a name brand. It’s kind of the perfect bullseye in every single way. And that’s before you even put Dafoe in the role of Scrooge. It’s basically the role he was born to play.

Eggers is also attached to a reboot of Labyrinth, so there’s no word about which film would go after Werwulf, which is currently looking at a Christmas 2026 release.  But, if Christmas Carol is next, there seems to be a very good chance that Christmas 2028 might just scare the Dickens out of us.

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