Joel Coen and Frances McDormand just did an Instagram live interview and spilled some beans about their upcoming Macbeth adaptation (sans Ethan) starring Denzel Washington, and McDormand herself.
Confirming that the official title will be “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” filming on the film, which Joel calls a “thriller,” had begun on February 10th and Coen confirmed that they were about 2/3 of the way done with the shoot before production shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For those of us wishing for a Coen-esque feature, expect disappointment since Joel admits that his adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic tale will be very faithful to the original text, with around “85% of the language” being kept for the film version.
This is Joel’s first non-episodic film since 2016’s “Hail Caesar.” It’s a peculiar project, to say the least, and -Joel admitted that he chose to do it because he had originally been asked by McDormand to direct a stage production of the play, which he ultimately declined. She ended up playing Lady Macbeth in the stage production, her work impressing Joel so much that he had the idea of transferring her performance onto the screen.
When asked what his favorite Macbeth movie adaptation is, Joel mentioned Akira Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood”. As for Orson Welles’ 1948 version, Joel believes that version is “compromised,” but didn’t go into greater detail as to why he believed that.
No word yet on why brother Ethan is not part of the project. It’s a conspicuous absence, most notably because they have always worked together (Joel is usually credited as the director, Ethan as the co-writer). They haven’t missed a collaboration together since their 1984 debut “Blood Simple.”
“Macbeth” is set to be released by A24, but no release date has been confirmed.