2022's The Northman, one of the most original and inventive big-budget movies released in years, unfortunately, bombed at the box office, but it hasn't stopped critics from singing director Robert Eggers' praises. Critics and general audiences have labeled him a visionary auteur, and they're immediately talking about where the filmmaker might go next.
The director is seemingly uninterested in hot property IPs, as, in an interview with Variety, he stated that he wouldn't make a Batman movie, to which Robert Pattinson hilariously responded, "Bull****!" However, there are so many other huge franchises the Eggers could turn into warped, obscure, and spectacular epics. Between video game movies stuck in development hell, a sequel to a classic swords-and-sandals movie, and a DC Extended Universe entry, Eggers' obsession with mythology and surrealism would make them classics.
Pirates Of The Caribbean
The Pirates of the Caribbean series belongs to Disney, so it's unlikely that the studio would ever hand one of its biggest franchises to a violence and psychological horror-oriented filmmaker like Eggers. However, a pirate-themed movie sounds right up the director's alley, and having Jack Sparrow to write for would surely make for some of the filmmaker's most absurd but fascinating dialogue yet.
What the visionary director could do with a nine-figure budget and several pirate ships at his disposal is unimaginable. But more than anything, just as The Lighthouse is full of colorful vernacular and colloquialisms accurate to how lighthouse keepers would speak, the directors could do the same with pirate characters. Two Pirates reboots are in development, and in a perfect world, one of them should be an Eggers movie.
God Of War
Eggers clearly has a fascination with mythology, and now he's mastered Norse mythology, it's time to take on Greek mythology with God of War. After The Northman, Eggers has proved that he can shoot swords-and-sandals epics with jacked, testosterone-fueled men of nature at the center. At one point in the movie, Amleth catches a spear thrown at him from the top of a fort and then throws it right back, and if that isn't Kratos energy then nothing is.
It'd be hard to adapt God of War without a lot of CGI, but there's a surprising amount of digital effects in The Northman just as there are practical effects. And those CG images in the film look like paintings. The video game movie could work as a spiritual successor to The Northman, as God of War is essentially a tale of revenge too, only on a much bigger scale.
Gladiator 2
Gladiator 2 has been speculated over for years now, but while it doesn't make much sense considering how Maximus died at the end of the original 2000 movie, that's exactly what the sequel would tackle. Nick Cave's infamous Gladiator 2 script sees Maximus in purgatory and resurrected by Roman Gods, and then having to take part in every major war until the end of time.
The movie ends with Maximus in the modern-day after having fought in World War II and the Vietnam War. The film is weird enough and epic enough that Eggers could deliver on both fronts. However, the original movie's director, Ridley Scott, has claimed dibs on the project, stating that he'd be stupid not to direct Gladiator 2.
Prince Of Persia
There has been one attempt at adapting the beloved video game, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, into a blockbuster movie. Disney was so invested in the project that the Jack Gyllenhaal-starring film had an inflated budget of $200 million in 2010. The movie was a box office bomb, and though no sequel has been planned, it feels like it will inevitably be rebooted at some point in time.
Even though The Northman had a budget of $80 million, Eggers is extremely economical when it comes to shooting movies. The director could get a lot more out of a budget with a lot less than $200 million, especially a swords-and-sandals movie full of supernatural goings-on.
Nosferatu
It's hard to call Nosferatu a franchise seeing as there is only one movie based on the character that was released 100 years ago. However, the character itself is based on Dracula, and there have been other remakes of the 1922 silent movie, including Nosferatu the Vampyre directed by Werner Herzog.
A remake of the movie might sound like a strange pull, but Eggers was actually attached to direct it and he was planning on making it before he even made The Lighthouse. Harry Styles was attached to star in the film, but he eventually pulled out due to scheduling conflicts, and that led to the project being indefinitely shelved.
Shadow Of The Colossus
2005's Shadow of the Colossus is another video game that deserves a movie, as its ambitious scope and mysterious storytelling would make for a wonderfully absorbing fantasy film. Those two elements are what Eggers does best, as The Northman has the most straightforward narrative of all his movies, but even that has a thick layer of ambiguity. The video game follows Wander, who must roam around the Forbidden Land slaying the giant beasts who protect it.
The order was given to him by an unknown spirit, and not everything is as it seems. The game has a heartbreaking ending, even if it isn't completely understood by its players, and it has led to tons of speculation and theories amongst fans. While many filmmakers would go into too much detail and ruin the mysteriousness of the game, Eggers could keep the ambiguity intact while still making a compelling movie.
Hansel And Gretel
Eggers didn't just fall into filmmaking and drop his incredible directorial debut, The Witch, without cutting his teeth beforehand. Like most filmmakers, Eggers learned the ropes by making short films first, and one of those short movies was his version of Hansel and Gretel in 2006, which is available to watch on YouTube.
The film turns the fairytale into a deeply disturbing and surreal horror movie. On the other end of the spectrum, the last time audiences saw Hansel and Gretel in a major Hollywood movie was in the totally misguided 2013 action blockbuster, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Eggers should balance the scales by turning his short film into an all-out terrifying horror movie.
Red Dead Redemption
Though some think Red Dead Redemption isn't a good game, it's a masterclass in storytelling and no other video game can match its cinematography and epic scope. The Red Dead Redemption series is a vast open world filled with detailed characters and tales of revenge. Just as with Eggers' movies, a lot of the world-building in the game is happening in the background, and only a filmmaker with a keen eye for detail like The Northman director could do the franchise any justice.
And even if a western doesn't tickle Eggers' fancy, there is Undead Nightmare, a zombie survival spin-off of the game. As the filmmaker started out in horror, it'd be interesting to see what he could do with a blockbuster zombie movie with a big budget behind him.
Rasputin
According to Deadline, Eggers was set to write and direct a miniseries about Rasputin for MRC. But that was reported all the way back at the beginning of 2016, which was more than six years ago, and since then, Eggers has written, directed, and released two other movies.
Though nothing has obviously come of it and it must have been quietly abandoned, a biopic of the strange Russian mystic sounds like a perfect project for Eggers. The inventive filmmaker could always bring it back to life not as a miniseries, but as an epic studio movie. The real-life mystic was seen as recently as in The King's Man, which was a box office bomb and audiences had a negative response to the mystic's portrayal, but Eggers' version could be much more strange and supernatural.
Justice League 2
While Zack Snyder's Justice League righted a lot of the theatrical release's wrongs, there are still loads of problems with the film. It's hard to follow, overlong long, and there's too much packed into any given shot. Eggers could make an epic sequel full of all the same mythology and villains set up in ZSJL, but it'd be much leaner and easier to follow, and it'd still have just as much depth.
The DCEU is generally much darker than the MCU or any other superhero series for that matter. And instead of trying to make it more lighthearted, Eggers could lean into the darkness and make one of the most visually stunning and tonally dark superhero movies ever.