Academy-Award winner Denzel Washington is in early talks to team with fellow Oscar-winner Frances McDormand in the newest screen adaptation of Macbeth. The film is set to be directed by Joel Coen, from an adaptation he is writing Deadline reports. Scott Rudin is producing, and the plan is for A24 to distribute worldwide.
Washington and McDormand are two of most acclaimed actors in the industry. Washington won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Glory and Best Actor in Training Day. McDormand won for Fargo and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both in the Best Actress category.
“Macbeth” was first adapted for the big screen in 1948 by Orson Welles and was most recently done in 2015 with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard starring as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, respectively.
The storyline is that a Scottish lord (Washington) becomes convinced by a trio of witches that he is destined to become king of Scotland. With the help of his ambitious wife, he does what he has to with the goal of seizing the crown.
After being on hiatus, Washington has a full schedule ahead of him with multiple projects on his plate. He will first shoot the Warner Bros. thriller “Little Things” in the fall, followed by “Macbeth” at the beginning of 2020. Lastly, he take his seat in the director’s chair on “Journal for Jordan,” starring Michael B. Jordan.
In 2016, McDormand performed the role of Lady Macbeth in a stage production by the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
Coen last wrote and directed the Netflix film “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” with his brother, Ethan, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
