It’s actually kind of surprising, given how foundational it is to the art of horror in cinema, that nobody’s ever landed a really serious effort to remake Robert Wiene’s 1920 German Expressionist classic The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. Sure, there have been a few token attempts over the last century of movie making, but most have either failed, or been so distant from the source material as to be basically unrecognizable. But maybe filmmakers have just been waiting for an actor possessed of sufficiently intense and off-putting vibes (and eyes) to come along and take over the part of Werner Krauss’ infamous, possibly mad hypnotist/psychologist. Cue Michael Shannon!
This is per Variety, which reports that Shannon has signed on to take on the title role in Doctor Caligari’s Cabinet Of Wonders. (To be clear, he’s playing the doctor, not the cabinet.) The film is being written and directed by John Erick Dowdle, working with his brother and frequent producing partner Drew, who previously worked with Shannon on their Paramount Network series Waco. The film is being financed and produced by independent film studio Anton, which will also handle sales of it at the upcoming European Film Market. As in the original—held up to this day as a landmark movie in terms of allowing its visuals and environments to reflect characters’ fractured psyches—the movie will see Shannon’s Caligari act as “a traveling mesmerist who journeys from town to town with a sleepwalker under his control, leaving a trail of grisly murders in their wake.” (Whether the new film will adopt the movie’s semi-infamous framing sequence, which features a twist that many film scholars feel subverts its anti-authoritarian principles, remains to be seen.)
The upshot of all this is that it’s really hard, from where we’re sitting, to imagine an actor better suited to a role that requires dominating others through sheer force of will (and intense staring) like this one. The Dowdles clearly agree, with John Erick Dowdle noting in a statement that, “Having worked with Michael Shannon on multiple projects, my brother and I have seen firsthand the unnerving intensity he can bring to even the simplest moments. The idea of seeing him play the horrifying Doctor Caligari became an obsession for us. The trust and creative shorthand we’ve built together will allow us to push deeper and bolder as we reimagine this iconic German Expressionist classic for a modern audience. I couldn’t be more excited to bring this nightmare to life with him.” Filming on the movie is expected to begin in June.
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