The new issue of Empire plunges into the blood-red mists of Justin Kurzel's Macbeth. There’s something for everyone: a battle-hardened Michael Fassbender, witches, a rhesus positive Paddy Considine, a scheming Marion Cotillard and a whole mess of Shakespearean intrigue, all illustrated with some spectacular images not dissimilar to these. And now here's the latest trailer too.
If that doesn’t quench your thirst for cauldron-fresh murderous shenanigans, here are a couple of exclusive new Macbeth character posters to fill the void, kicking off with the man himself...
The protagonists are, of course, Fassbender’s Thane of Glamis, a loyal servant to King Duncan (David Thewlis) and cohort to Banquo (Paddy Considine). Well, he is those things until he encounters three witches in the post-battle mists of the Scottish highlands and hears their prophecy of great power in his future. Their soothsaying takes root with the help of the honey poured into his ear by Lady Macbeth. Here is Marion Cotillard's manipulative princess in her suitably transparent veil.
Director Justin 'Snowtown' Kurzel has summoned the visual power and creeping madness of a medieval Apocalypse Now with an adaptation that's simultaneously faithful and fresh. “It reminded me a lot of a Western,” Kurzel expanded earlier this year, "and of a landscape and atmosphere that felt much more dangerous than I’d ever seen before from adaptations of Macbeth”.
Rounding out the Australian's cast are Sean Harris, Elizabeth Debicki and Jack Reynor. Macbeth is out in the UK on October 2.