The Lighthouse, director Robert Eggers’ Nova Scotia-shot feature film, will have its world premiere in France at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday as part of the 2019 Directors’ Fortnight lineup.
The film stars Robert Pattinson and Oscar-nominee Willem Dafoe as lighthouse keepers in early 20th-century Maine. While the plot is being kept under wraps until the premiere, the film has been described as a fantasy-horror story set in the world of seafaring myths.
It was completely shot on 35mm black-and-white stock, using equipment from the 1920s and ’40s.
Filming took place last year in the province. Locations included the Leif Erickson Trail at the Cape Forchu lighthouse in Yarmouth County, where a full-scale temporary lighthouse was built by crew for the film. The production also filmed in Dartmouth at a soundstage and at Survival Systems, a pool facility that creates realistic marine and underwater scenes.
The movie is Eggers’ followup to the 2015 period horror film The Witch.
The production employed a Nova Scotia crew of over 150 people and spent over $6.8 million in a four-month period while filming in the province, according to Screen Nova Scotia, including $300,000 on hotel rooms in Yarmouth.
The Lighthouse was service produced by Nova Scotia production company Topsail Entertainment (Mr. D , The Healer), alongside RT Features (Call Me By Your Name ). A24 (Moonlight , Lady Bird) acquired worldwide rights and will distribute the film in the United States. New Regency (The Revenant) joined the project as a co-financier.
“Working to fulfil Robert Eggers’ unique and authentic vision was a challenge that our Nova Scotia crew relished and met,” said Nova Scotia producer Mike Volpe in a news release issued Thursday.
“Filming on the exposed western tip of the province at the end of winter was no easy task, but the quality of Robert’s material and the talented professionals involved ensured a terrific film would be made. The Lighthouse is a movie we can be proud of as coming from Nova Scotia.”
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