“Macbeth” is now in production, with Michael Fassbender in the lead role, and the actor is careful in judging his character too quickly or harshly. “I don’t think Macbeth is evil. I think he’s damaged,” he told the Daily Mail. “When we meet him, he’s a man who’s as good as his circumstances will allow. He serves his king loyally and looks after his soldiers.”
The first images from Justin Kurzel‘s (“Snowtown Murders“) film are here, highlighting not just Fassbender, but Marion Cotillard, who has the juicy role of Lady Macbeth, one she will be playing with her native French accent intact. Fassbender details the headspace that Macbeth finds himself in with his wife. “He’d been away fighting and when he returns, we see it’s a relationship that’s broken down. They lost a child, and there wasn’t time for them to grieve because he’s been away campaigning,” he explained. “Lady M is desperate for that reconnection, and briefly they do. And, of course, the doorway has been opened to darkness and to violence.”
With the promo starting early on this film, one wonders if The Weinstein Company will be presenting the first footage next month in their now annual sizzle reel presentation for Cannes press. One to definitely look out for regardless.
Marion is an excellente actress!
language is no barrier for a performance
She will be amazing as Lady Macbeth!
All the posts about this movie here are so annoying! actually not the posts but the stupid comments about Marion Cotillard's accent. She is a talented actress and has nothing to prove to anyone, if someone has doubts about her talent just watch all the movies mentioned here, and if you think that a f*cking foreign accent will ruin Macbeth, you should watch Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and you will see that all the english language adaptations of Macbeth are nothing but garbage compared to this movie!
No one here saw the film yet, so how about watch first and criticize later, huh? try that!
If it was a french version I'd say great casting, but her accent is way too thick for this. Marion Cotillard suffers from Penelope Cruz syndrome… When she stars in a film in her own language, she's as good as it gets. But when she stars in an english language film, the results are mediocre at best.
Spoiler alert: since she dies off-stage in the play, hopefully she won't have to attempt another atrocious death scene.
There's a long historical link between Scotland and France, as already noted. I'm sure we'll also have tiresome people ignoring the overall production and finding phantom traces of Irish in Fassbender's lines, as well.
Every production has the right to interpret. Ralph Fiennes' recent Coriolanus set the play in the world of contemporary insurgencies, and it works. The idea of a Lady Macbeth who is foreign, slightly alien to her surroundings, of a Macbeth tied to his foreign wife, is a new interpretation of the play, and I like it.
Marion was clearly miscast in this movie. No matter how you attempt to twist the facts: in the play, Lady Macbeth was not French, she did not spoke with a random French accent.
Historically, Lady MacBeth is most usually understood to be based on an actual Queen Of Scotland, named Gruoch ingen Boite, otherwise known as Gruoch of Scotland. There is no reference to a French origin or heritage anywhere, or any other country other than Scotland. Going for an authentic accent is the sign of a true actor. You can't just rewrite some of Shakespeare's best dialogue to make up for some actress limited abilities. Anyone remember when Juliette Binoche was bizarrely cast as Cathy in Wuthering Heights alongside Ralph Fiennes? She was just awful! Wasnât there really any other English thespian actresses available? I find that really hard to believe. I suppose they went with Marion Cotillard because Studio Canal is producing and The Weinstein Company is distributing.
Marion is gonna bring it, her performance will be the talk of this film
For God's sake! go search about the Old Alliance before complaining about a french actress playing Lady Macbeth!
In the play, Lady Macbeth's nationality is not even mentioned! plus Madaleine de Valois and Marie de Guise were both french women who became queens of Scotland as wives of King James V and Marie de Guise is the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots. A french woman could be the queen of Scotland at the time, there's no problem if a french actress is playing Lady Macbeth, this is historically accurate! This film is filled with an english, irish and australian cast, there's no scottish actors in the most important roles, why the only french is the one to be criticized because of her accent if you didn't saw the film yet?
Shut up and wait until you watch the f*cking movie before complaining about someone else's accent!
If an actress ever wants to prove her chops, the Lady Macbeth role is a surefire way to do it.
Either she will knock it out of the park or fail miserably.
Let's wait and see…
epic. What a great screen couple!
My favourite actress with my favourite actor together on screen! Cotillard was born to play Lady Macbeth, can't wait for her second nomination
I hope Marion Cotillard to win an Oscar next year, she is a suberb talent and one Oscar is not enough for her.
It's about to go down. Yes!! Kurzel is all about reality and darkness.
I love the pics! Cotillard and Fassbender are two of my favorite actors and this is one of my most anticipated movies!
They let Marion Cotillard keep her French accent mostly because her english is that bad. It's rather thick and I've never heard her do a different one. I hope Macbeth won't sound Irish as well or else it won't be much of a "Scottish play". I think Fassbender was born to play Macbeth, but Cotillard is overrated and lacks the depth attached to such a complex character.
Wow! that pic with Cotillard and Fassbender is so sexy!
I can't wait to see this film! I hope Harvey Weinstein don't ignore this film and don't scr*w up its Oscar chances like he did with The Immigrant!
I can't wait to see this. I've been excited for it since Fassbender signed on, and I think a French Lady Macbeth will provide an interesting twist.
As a first impression these two pictures work well. But yes, it's all about the casting (despite Justin Kurzel being a really interesting choice to direct) and by now we take Fassbender for granted. Andrea Riseborough would've been my choice for Lady Macbeth. Cotillard is a great actress, but there's a big gap in quality between her French roles and her Englisch roles. And that has only partially to do with scripts and directors. But a French Lady M is at least unusual and therefore intersting.
Nicole Kidman should've been Lady Macbeth.