Some of team Empire have already seen Coriolanus. You know, the film Coriolanus, directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes, rather than some school Shakespeare production we saw sometime, somewhere, a long time ago.
We want to make that clear because Fiennes's Coriolanus is a whole world away from Mr. Jenkins' budget-restricted interpretation of the tragedy using the class of 3 and 4B a decade or two ago.
In Fiennes's world, it's still Italy, and it's still good ol', bad ol' Coriolanus, but it's also the modern day, so the sandal-wearing hack-and-slash setting has been replaced with Ralph and Gerard Butler squaring up in deserted urban landscapes packing machine guns and knives as long as your arm.
Photos have already been seen online here as well as in the last issue of Empire, but actual footage has not been readily available -- until the Big Screen got to wrap their eyes around three exclusive clips this morning.
In them, we see how Fiennes has taken Shakespeare's original words and put them into a modern context. Spoken clearly and mercifully slowly, there's plenty of breathing space for those not all read up on the Bard's canon to get a hold of what exactly is going on.
In the first scene we were shown, the Roman people are rising up, clamoring for blood, and then Caius Martius (before he's given the catchy "Coriolanus" nickname, natch) brings out the riot troops and gives them an ear-bashing they'll never forget.
Then there was a jaw-dropping scene that saw Ralph's beautifully-shaven bonce covered in blood, tearing through Gerard Butler's army before facing off with him, mano-a-mano, guns down, knives in hand.
Think Modern Warfare: Shakespearean Edition and you've got an incredibly simplistic interpretation of what we saw. Seriously, so simplistic. But still, we'll bet two bucks people will say it, so here we are, getting in there first...
The final snippet was Caius Martius coming home to a hero's welcome, getting an authoritative pat on the head from his mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) and a kiss on the lips from his wife Virgilia (Jessica Chastain). It is, for want of a better word, tense. Oh, and good.
There's also a poster that's been released today via The Daily Telegraph, which we thought we'd add into the mix here for your approval, so check it out below and let us what we think.
{TELEGRAPH CORIOLANUS POSTER}
Coriolanus will be out in cinemas come January 20 2012.