I'm so pleased to hear that "Enemy of Man" might actually get made as I'd pretty much given up hope on it thinking that with the Fassbender version, it wouldn't be seen as being worthwhile to make but I think there's room for two versions and I have reservations about the believability of Fassbender to be honest - too young. One of the (many) excellent things about Shakespeare is that there are rôles for all ages and for some, you need to wait; to grow into them and Macbeth is one of those. I guess you could play him when he was younger - how old was Sean when he played him on stage? - but having studied it, I always think of Macbeth as someone older -Sean's age now being perfect - still in his prime but always aware of those younger, power hungry, ambitious men coming up behind him, ready to take his place, and this last piece of the action is how he sees it; his last chance to really show what he can do, and the desperation, the lust for power before he loses his chance forever is what takes him to places he would never have considered going before and that is the result of his ageing and feeling threatened and worn by that so it sits better on someone older rather than in their late thirties although warriors didn't live so long in those days so …
My only concern is who will play Lady Macbeth? There was talk of Tilda Swinton - perfect for the role if the play was "Lady Macbeth" but it isn't and she would be overwhelming with her intensity and this is Macbeth's 'moment', Sean's moment - and Charlotte Gainsbourg is too young. Surely the point of Lady M. is that she is Macbeth's equal, the perfect match in all ways, including age, let alone unstoppable ambition. The loss of their child and that future is subsumed into her desire to help her husband with his lust for power - once he'd got used to the idea that such power was a possibility - she can't be too young or too sexy; she only needs to be sexy to him and the interplay between the two leads will show that aspect of their relationship, but the focus has to be on Macbeth, her intensity is secondary to his, and the choice of the actress needs to reflect that - in my opinion.
Personally I will be thrilled to see a new version of "Macbeth"- it is long overdue. The Welles version seems really dated now and always was super theatrical - I'm not complaining, who can about Welles? - and the Polanski version, not surprisingly, was a gore-fest which, for me, was a distraction from the text and there is nothing about a Shakespeare text that you want to be distracted from, and although the Kurosawa version is astonishing, it is not everyone's idea of 'entertainment', so it is about time that a new interpretation of the play appears and it will be very interesting to see what Vincent Regan's interpretation is, and having sat through both "Airborne" and "The Lost Future", I think I've seen the worst so I'm really looking forward to this particular reward!
