You can pretty much reveal Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard as the leads of any movie and most audiences are likely pre-buying tickets. Then add Shakespeare’s arguably best play, the murderous and guilt-haunted “Macbeth,” along with up-and-coming director Justin Kurzel (“Snowtown Murders”) and have anticipation levels start reaching feeding-frenzy levels.
And so expectation for Kurzel’s “Macbeth” has been building and building and it’s almost here: or at least it will be for those lucky enough to be in attendance at Cannes. And if you didn’t read the play in high school, here’s the official synopsis:
Fassbender plays Macbeth, Cotillard his wife Lady Macbeth, and the cast also features Sean Harris, Paddy Considine, Elizabeth Debicki (from “The Great Gatsby”), David Thewlis and up-and-comer Jack Reynor whose indie work got him noticed by Michael Bay for “Transformers: Age Of Exctinction” (but kid can act).
A disturbing film with grisly subject matter, “Snowtown Murders” was met with mixed reviews (including ours), but so striking was the filmmaking, it wasn’t a huge surprise that Kurzel landed Fassbender and Cotillard for his adaptation of “Macbeth.” Adapted by Jacob Koskoff, Todd Louiso (the director of "Love Liza," and "Hello I Must Be Going") and Michael Lesslie, The Weinstein Company are expected to release the film as an Oscar contender later this fall. In the interim, we wait to hear about its reception on the Croissette as it plays in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Meanwhile the first clip/tease from the film has landed and as expected it’s fairly intense. Watch below and let us know what you think, and check out a couple of new pics. [MFO]
Clip removed at the behest of the studio, but it can be seen publicly in this clip below around the 22 minute mark.
