Macbeth on the Big Screen
My favorite Shakespeare play is set to receive a makeover later this year. The plotline of Macbeth will be recast into a modern-day thriller by Vantage Point director Pete Travis.
Regardless how you feel about modern film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, this project has the potential to make an important contribution. Already the screenplay has been co-written by two Harvard literature scholars, Jennifer Lee Carrell and Nick Saunders, providing an academic seal of approval.
The final film, entitled Come Like Shadows, has been described by Travis as “a powerful, tragic morality tale about personal and political corruption. An awesome, epic story for our troubled times, its irresistible tension holds the audience in a vice like grip, its raw emotion will break their hearts.”
A great description of Macbeth, if ever I heard one!
How do you feel about modern film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays? Do they improve or distort the public’s appreciation of the Bard?
Photo of Pete Travis © Stephen Lovekin / Getty Images
Comments
will this ever increasing plethora of left-wing producers trying to better Shakespeare ever diminish? Leave it as it was intended when written. ‘Othello on ChocIce’ the all-skating jealousy fandango is imminent…….
Why do these modern talents tinker with the works of others? Let them do something which they can claim as their own.
A modern adaptation can be a creative interpretation of literature that is universal and relevant to modern times.
Obviously, Shakespeare’s use of the English Language is vibrant and powerful, but sometimes a little experimentation with time period and setting sheds a new light on the work.