I honestly think Akira Kurosawa‘s Throne of Blood is the only film adaptation of William Shakespeare‘s “Macbeth” that I’ve seen. I haven’t seen Orson Welles‘ version, nor Roman Polanski‘s, but I’ll surely check out Justin Kurzel‘s new adaptation once it arrives, and I have to suspect it will have its first official peek out in September in either Toronto or Venice.
Today a couple of first look pictures from the film, featuring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard as Macbeth and “Lady M” have arrived courtesy of The Daily Mail‘s set visit report.
My only concern is the language. Shakespeare’s verse remains in the film, though it has apparently been “edited” according to The Daily Mail‘s Baz Bamigboye, quoting Fassbender who says, “There’s a vibrancy and intelligence to the script.” It’s always tough to get the tone of a film right when it comes to Shakespeare’s prose and I look at the screenwriters and my doubts increase.
Jacob Koskoff and Todd Louiso, who collaborated on the awful The Marc Pease Experiment penned the screenplay, which doesn’t give me a lot of hope, but also has me wondering just what the hell this is going to turn into.
Fassbender adds, regarding his character:
He’s suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. It makes total sense, when you think about it. Justin set the seed of the idea in my head. This trauma is something we know about. In World War I they called it battle fatigue, and it was probably more horrific in Macbeth’s days, when they were killing with their bare hands, and driving a blade through bodies. He’s having these hallucinations, and he needs to return to the violence to find some sort of clarity, or peace.
The Weinstein Co. is handling domestic distribution, which further adds to my expectation that we’ll be seeing this during the fall film festival circuit.
Along with Fassbender and Cotillard, Kurzel’s Macbeth co-stars Paddy Considine, David Thewlis, Sean Harris, Jack Reynor and The Great Gatsby stand-out, Elizabeth Debicki.
