In the mid-1980s, producer Augusto Caminito began producing horror and thriller films in Italy for foreign markets, such as Lucio Fulci's "Murder Rock". Caminito was introduced to the script for "Nosferatu in Venice" by Carlo Alberto Alfieri who had written the screenplay and its original story with Leandro Lucchetti. The script was originally a sequel to Werner Herzog's film "Nosferatu the Vampyre" with Alfieri securing the star of that film, Klaus Kinski, to headline in this sequel. On December 17, 1985 Caminito and Kinski signed on for a two film deal: "Nosferatu in Venice" and "Paganini", the latter being a film Kinski had been working on getting produced since 1980.