It's not that crazy IMO. Eggers is a rising director who has already cultivated a fanbase, there's a good ensemble full of recognizable names to plop on the poster, with Skarsgard also fresh off Big Little Lies, and Eggers probably pitched this as a good action revenge story, something that is easy to sell to people and easy to market. A lot can happen between greenlighting to final release in terms of production and advertising that a lot of people fail to account for.
And even then, studios like making big swings on directors with prestige behind them. It legitimizes their library and especially their streaming service or gives them a good hook when selling to other streamers/premium networks. Paul Thomas Anderson hasn't had a box office hit since There Will Be Blood, but he keeps getting movies made because of that prestige.