An unsatisfying scene involving magical plants helped shape one of 2024’s most anticipated horror films. Chris Columbus, whose producer credit on Robert Eggers‘ Nosferatu has raised eyebrows among film fans, reveals that his experience with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone directly influenced his approach to supporting Eggers’ vision. The unlikely connection stems from a frustrating moment during Potter’s production when Columbus wanted to enhance the Devil’s Snare sequence with additional CGI.
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“I’ve been with so many producers and studio executives in the past who’ve said, ‘I’m sorry, you can’t have this.’ I hate it. On Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I was upset with the sequence where the kids fall into the [Devil’s Snare],” he told The Hollywood Reporter. The scene wasn’t working, and I said, ‘I need to enhance it with a little CGI.’ And one of the executives said to me, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter if that scene is not as good as the other scenes in the film. It’s fine.’”
“And I thought, ‘I never want to have that attitude. Every scene has to be great, and you have to help the filmmaker realize their vision.’ So when I heard that about my own film, I told myself that I’m never going to say that if I’m producing for someone else. I instead say to the filmmaker, ‘We have to help you find the best possible way of getting this made.’ So it’s an attitude of positivity, and Eleanor has it as well. We are both undying supporters of our filmmakers.”
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This philosophy led Columbus and his daughter Eleanor’s production company, Maiden Voyage, to adopt an unusual stance: never saying no to directors. “This is probably going to be the death knell for Maiden Voyage as a company, but our philosophy is we never say no to the director. We find a way to make it happen. I’m not kidding,” Columbus explains. “We tell the filmmaker, ‘Don’t worry about it; we’ll worry about it.’ We don’t say, ‘You can’t have what you want.’ We instead say, ‘We want you to have what you want. We will find a way to get it.’”
The partnership between Eggers and the Columbus family began when The Witch ran into financial troubles. Eleanor, a fan of the script, convinced her initially hesitant father to help.
“Chris wasn’t really into it initially, but when they saw a cut of the movie, he changed his mind,” Eggers said. “And so they helped finish the film, and that’s when I first met Chris, and he’s been a mentor ever since.”
“One of the coolest things was that the creative producer was Chris Columbus,” the director shared. “Having one of the masters of orthodox Hollywood storytelling at my side, by the monitor every single day, was so immensely helpful. We make such different films and he was not trying to Chris Columbus-ify Nosferatu — he was trying to make this the best Robert Eggers movie it could be. But his thinking would be an antidote at times to me and my cinematographer Jarin Blaschke’s arty-farty inclinations. He was a good safety net to say, ‘Are you telling the story as clearly as possible at this moment?’”
The collaboration has proven so successful that Nosferatu marks their third film together and their fourteenth overall under the Maiden Voyage banner. The unexpected pairing demonstrates how filmmakers can handle multiple genres, with Columbus transitioning from family-friendly blockbusters like Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Harry Potter to supporting Eggers’ distinctive approach to genre films.
Nosferatu is in theaters now.
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Image Courtesy of Focus Features
