The first trailer of "Macbeth" did not only reveal the beautifully dark and gory feels of the Shakespearean tragedy but also featured the ghastly snow-filled environment of the Scottish highlands. Though risky and inconvenient, Australian director Justin Kurzel thinks that shooting the film in the Scotland peaks was both "horrendous" and inspiring.
Justin Kurzel's film adaptation of Shakespeare's well-known tragedy "Macbeth" was filmed for over 36 winter days in some of Scotland's most remote and exposed locations. The chosen setting of the forthcoming movie might have given the cast and crew a hard and precarious time but according to Belfast Telegraph, shooting the film in the said country was "everything" to the Australian director.
Kurzel told a preview audience in Edinburgh that "the idea of doing Macbeth in its homeland, and the idea of embracing that landscape" brought him excitement to film the movie. "I remember my first trip to Skye - it was unbelievably beautiful but also frightening how majestic, how kind of ancient it was," he said describing the Scotland setting.
According to him, some areas around Skye and Applecross captured the perfect atmosphere they wanted for "Macbeth" to have.
"Then we arrived and you are watching your production designer fly across the camera, picked up by the wind, and Marion Cotillard kind of disappearing into a bog," he said. "It's really formidable, but it was also what we were getting most inspired by, this kind of unforgivable land that we were trespassers on, in a way."
Kurzel stressed that if Scotland was not the film's location, he will not be doing the film at all.
"Macbeth", as previously reported, follows the story of a fearless and ambitious Scottish general who found out a prophecy from three witches which claims that he will one day become the King of Scotland. Blinded by his greed and ambitions, the warrior kills the King and takes the throne for himself.
Michael Fassbender ("12 Years a Slave"," X-Men: Days of Future Past") plays the character of the cruel general while Marion Cotillard ("La Vie en Rose", "The Dark Knight Rises") as Lady Macbeth. The film also stars David Thewlis ("The Theory of Everything"), Elizabeth Debicki ("The Man from U.N.C.L.E."), Jack Reynor ("Transformers: Age of Extinction"), Sean Harris ("Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation") and Paddy Considine ("Child 44").
Also filmed at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland and Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, "Macbeth" had its World Premiere at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and is slated to open in UK cinemas on October
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