“Shadow of the Vampire” is a movie from 2000 directed by E. Elias Merhige and starred by John Malcovich (F.W.Murnau) and Willem Defoe ( Max Shreck).
F.W. Nosferatu Murnau is filming in Eastern Europe. The director decided to make the most authentic movie ever. Pair this end Murnau has hired a real vampire, Max Schreck as the starring.
Murnau Explains the peculiar behavior of Schreck to his crew saying that he is a method actor. If Schreck performs the actions that desperately seeks Murnau and control his more indecent needs until the end of the production, Shreck will get a big award from the director…
The plot of this movie suggets the old urban legend that a real vampire starred of the classic silent film “Nosferatu“, directed by F. W. Murnau in 1922.
Obviously, the fact of bringing in a vampire in the cast has its consequences, and eventually generate a number of situations that endanger the entire production team, even threatening to cancel the movie.
Murnau and his star have several clashes of opinion regarding the makeup (or lack of it), the validity of the cinema as a means to gain immortality and destiny of the people involved in the filming of that venerable classic.
