Is this a dagger which you see before you, the handle towards your hand? Well no, obviously not. It's a gorgeous new picture from the set of Macbeth, courtesy of issue 300 of **Empire and photographer Mary McCartney, showing Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard as the titular warrior and his lady wife.
The film comes from **Snowtown **director Justin Kurzel, adapting Shakespeare's play for the big screen in - as you can see - a homespun, rough-around-the-edges take on the story.
For the three of you who missed it in English lit class in school, Macbeth encounters three witches after a succesful battle and hears a prophecy that he will become King. When other of their predictions come true, he begins to wonder if they were on to something, and at the behest of his wife, decides to double down on the toil and trouble and engage in a spot of conspiracy and murder to take the throne. Predictably, life ain't quite so easy for someone who proves so lacking in the milk of human kindness.
This new version of Macbeth also stars David Thewlis, Jack Reynor, Sean Harris, Paddy Considine and Elizabeth Debicki, and is something wicked that will this way come in 2015. Screw your anticipation to the sticking place, everyone!
](http://www.empireonline.com/magazine/magazine?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
And apologies if you spotted the damned references to the play.