Michael Fassbender in ‘Macbeth’: Actor to Take On Shakespeare

After tackling Magneto, a killer robot, and a sex-addicted New Yorker, Michael Fassbender has set his sights on his next challenge: “Macbeth.” Fassbender will play the scheming nobleman for “Snowtown” director Justin Kurzel.

The screenplay, by Todd Louiso and Jacob Koskoff, while supposedly a “visceral” new adaptation, will retain the original Shakespearean setting and dialogue. Louiso and Koskoff collaborated on the Paramount Vantage comedy “The Marc Pease Experience,” which, despite starring Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman, was unceremoniously dumped into a handful of theaters while Vantage was being erased from the Paramount landscape.

“Macbeth” will reunite “Shame” producers Iain Canning and Emile Sherman (who also produced Fassbender’s upcoming comedic drama “Frank”). It’s unclear when the adaptation will film, however, since Kurzel was recently attached to an adaptation of the John le Carre thriller “Our Kind of Traitor,” which was supposed to go later this year.

If you’ve never read “Macbeth,” it concerns a nobleman with murderous intentions who uses a variety of schemes (including the aid of three witches) to become the new king of Scotland. So basically: “Brave” without the bears.

[via ScreenDaily]