Something wicked this way comes. And no, we’re not talking about Halloween time.
Just ahead of its festival debut, A24 released the first trailer for Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth. It will have its world premiere at the opening night of the New York Film Festival, which kicks off on Sept. 24.
Even without the trailer, the official description of the film by NYFF is enticing enough (not to mention it’s adapted from the William Shakespeare classic) .
“Joel Coen’s boldly inventive visualization of The Scottish Play is an anguished film that stares, mouth agape, at a sorrowful world undone by blind greed and thoughtless ambition, starring a strikingly inward Denzel Washington as the man who would be king and an effortlessly Machiavellian Frances McDormand as his Lady,” it reads.
The Tragedy of Macbeth marks Coen’s first project without brother Ethan. The last movie the duo wrote and directed together was the 2018 western anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, with TV series Fargo as their most recent collaboration as producers.
However, the film is Coen’s first movie with Frances McDormand since 2016 comedy Hail, Caesar! He has been married to the Academy Award-winning actor since 1984, the same year Blood Simple hit theaters. The neo-noir crime film was McDormand’s feature-film debut as an actor, as well as the Coens’ directorial debut. About ten years later, McDormand won the Oscar for best actress for her performance in their 1996 crime drama, Fargo.
Ultimately, The Tragedy of Macbeth is a story of murder, madness and wrathful cunning, as hinted at in the trailer. Through a fog, Lord Macbeth (Denzel Washington) emerges to stand in front of the fateful, hooded trio of witches. And aside from a reverberating boom, there is but a single, foreshadowing line of dialogue: “By the pricking of my thumb, something wicked this way comes.”
Alongside Coen and McDormand, The Tragedy of Macbeth is produced by Robert Graf and Eli Bush, with music by longtime Coen collaborator Carter Burwell and cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel (who first worked with the Coens on Paris, je t’aime). With Washington and McDormand starring, the cast also includes Corey Hawkins, Moses Ingram, Brendan Gleeson, Harry Melling, Ralph Ineson, Brain Thompson and Sean Patrick Thomas.
After debuting at NYFF, The Tragedy of Macbeth will begin its theatrical run on Christmas Day. The Apple original film will then be available on its affiliated streamer on Jan. 14, 2022.
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Photography by: Courtesy A24
