As the new Magneto, Michael Fassbender has shown he can bring the murderous rage when required. As seen in Black Swan, Natalie Portman is no stranger to mentally unraveling. So it only feels natural that Fassbender and Portman have signed onto a new adaptation of Macbeth to be helmed by Snowtown director Justin Kurzel. The duo recently co-starred in one of Terrence Malick’s upcoming films set in the Austin music scene, and were set to star together again until the wheels fell off Jane Got A Gun. Now they’ll reunite on an adaptation that Portman has reportedly been eying for a while, even considering taking on stage versions if it meant getting to play Lady Macbeth.
Written by, of all people, Todd Louiso (perhaps best known as Dick in High Fidelity) and Jacob Koskoff, the script reportedly takes a more “visceral approach” with “significant battle scenes,” yet keeps the play in 11th-century Scotland—continuing the trend of historically faithful adaptations of Shakespeare that includes Julian Fellowes’ traditional take on Romeo and Juliet. (It definitely sounds more akin to Roman Polanski’s 1971 version than modern reimaginings like Scotland, PA or the one with Sam Worthington set in Melbourne’s criminal underworld.) Macbeth is supposed to shoot later this year, though with so many projects on the docket for both Fassbender and Portman, that’s obviously far from certain.
