Trailer for Denzel Washington's THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH From Director Joel Coen
William Shakespeare’s story of Macbeth has been told a ton of times in several different forms, but never quite like this upcoming adaptation from writer and director Joel Coen. The film is titled The Tragedy of Macbeth, and it stars Denzel Washington, who is taking on the role of Macbeth.
The film is shot in black and white and it offers a takes a unique approach at telling this legendary story. One of the first things I noticed was that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are older in this version than they're usually portrayed in this story. Lady Macbeth is played by Frances McDormand, who previously talked about the age of the character in the film saying:
"It puts a very specific time pressure on the characters, but also on the storytelling, which I think is the real brilliance of the adaptation that Joel has done. There's a real suspense ... The time is running out not only for the characters, but also it propels the storytelling."
In the story, three witches tell the Scottish general Macbeth that he will be King of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth kills the king, becomes the new king, and kills more people out of paranoia. Civil war erupts to overthrow Macbeth, resulting in more death.
The film also stars Brendan Gleeson as King Duncan, Harry Melling as Malcolm, Corey Hawkins as Macduff, Ralph Ineson as The Captain, and Kathryn Hunter as the three witches.
This is the first film directed by one of the Coen brothers without the other's involvement. When talking about the movie Joel Coen said:
"I think that is something that I've always sort of felt when watching the play and also something that became more clear and more interesting to me as I was getting into it and doing the adaptation. It's interesting how Shakespeare sort of pre-figured certain tropes in American thriller and crime literature that were common in the early part of the 20th century."
The Tragedy of Macbeth will be released in theaters on December 25th and will stream on Apple TV+ on January 14th.