Harry Styles would not have played a vampire in Robert Eggers' new version of Nosferatu

Robert Eggers' long-gestating horror film Nosferatu might have given Harry Styles a role into which the singer could sink his teeth but the director has clarified that Styles did not sign on to play a vampire. The singer recently departed the project due to "scheduling concerns." The movie, which is set to star Anya Taylor-Joy, was put on hold following the singer's exit.

In a new interview with IndieWire, Eggers has revealed that Styles was set to play the role of Hutter who, in director F.W. Murnau's original 1922 Nosferatu, is sent to visit a remote castle belonging to the vampire Count Orlok.

"It's fallen apart twice," said the filmmaker of his Nosferatu. "I've been trying to get the word out because the word did carry that Harry Styles was going to be in the movie. I just want to be clear that he was going to be Hutter and not Nosferatu himself."

The director also talked about his frustration at being unable to get the production off the ground.

"I've been trying so hard," the filmmaker said. "And I just wonder if Murnau's ghost is telling me, like, you should stop."

Eggers has long wanted to direct a new version of Nosferatu and spoke about the project to this writer shortly after the release of his debut film, 2015's The Witch.

"The Murnau film is one of the greatest films ever made," he said at the time. "It's kind of clunky. It was a low budget indie in its day and the design for its time is very inconsistent. The sets are very expressionistic and fake. But even still, it stands up as something really incredible. It's kind of egomaniacal to hear that I'm remaking something that objectively totally doesn't need to be remade. But it still might happen!"

Nosferatu was previously remade in 1979 by Werner Herzog with a cast which included Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, and Bruno Ganz.

Watch the trailer below to Eggers' new film The Northman which heads to theaters April 22.

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