Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard is to play Lady Macbeth in a new big screen version of the famous Shakespearean tragedy, replacing Natalie Portman in a role which see her appearing opposite Michael Fassbender as the infamous Scottish usurper king.
Australian director Justin Kurzel (Snowtown) will take charge of the cameras for the film, which is being backed by France's Studio Canal and Film4. The production company is See Saw, which recently delivered the Oscar-winning The King's Speech and the highly-acclaimed Steve McQueen drama Shame (also starring Fassbender.) It described the film as "a thrilling interpretation of the dramatic realities of the times and a truthful reimagining of what wartime must have really been like for one of Shakespeare's most famous and compelling characters".
Film4's Tessa Ross told the BBC she was "very excited" at the prospect of Kurzel, who she called "an exceptional director" bringing his "visceral and urgent" style to a project she said had an "extraordinary" cast. Low budget Aussie true crime horror Snowtown won plaudits in 2011 for its depiction of a series of killings in the titular south Australian town in the 1990s.
Cotillard won the best actress Oscar in 2008 for her turn as French singer Edith Piaf in the biopic La Vie en Rose.
• Daniel Henshall on Snowtown: 'Everybody has a source of power that they get off on'
• Snowtown: full coverage
