The League of Austen Artists: FIRST LOOK: Michael Fassbender as glowering Macbeth with Marion Cotillard as his blood-stained Lady

Friday, May 16, 2014

FIRST LOOK: Michael Fassbender as glowering Macbeth with Marion Cotillard as his blood-stained Lady

MAIL ON-LINE
By AMELIA PROUD
PUBLISHED: 00:58 EST, 15 May 2014 | UPDATED: 04:40 EST, 15 May 2014

'And there is an end, but now they rise again': Michael Fassbender will hit our screens as Shakespeare's damned usurper next year

'And there is an end, but now they rise again': Michael Fassbender will hit our screens as Shakespeare's damned usurper next year

There couldn't be a more salivating prospect than Michael Fassbender as Shakespeare's aspirant Macbeth and Marion Cotillard as his manipulative Lady.

And a first look at the posters for the 2015 movie version of the cursed Scottish play - directed by Justin Kurzel - does nothing to quell the appetite

'It’s the first time I’ve played a character with no light, total darkness,' Marion Cotillard told Variety recently of playing Lady Macbeth.

'And when she loses control … I’m affected by the character I live with when I’m shooting, so I lost control of everything, like her, and it was really hard to handle.'

She also told The Independent: 'The depth of humanity in her – but it’s all driven away by fear and despair. How you do things to have a better life – but when they are against humanity, you will fail.'

And she has faith in her co-star: 'I saw a lot of movies [Fassbender] was in, and I have the feeling he’s reached another level here.

'When you start a scene and you don’t really know where you’re going to go, that’s a roller-coaster. Many times I was surprised by what he does in this movie, and this is priceless.'

Tough gig: Cotillard has previously said portraying Lady Macbeth has been a challenge in that she has never played a character with 'total darkness' before