Above is the new teaser trailer for Joel Coen’s upcoming The Tragedy of Macbeth, the first outing for the prolific director without brother Ethan by his side behind the lens.
The Denzel Washington-helmed Shakespeare adaptation sees the titular doomed king responding to an ominous repetitive thud: “whence is that knocking?”
We then see Washington exit his castle door and traversing through a haunting starlit field only to find a trio of witches (Kathryn Hunter) crouched upon some beams in an abandoned structure.
The brief clips feature some of the breathtaking black and white photography from the film, as well as a fast cut-away to Francis McDormand’s scheming Lady Macbeth.
Though the film has yet to be released theatrically or on streaming, it’s already garnered rave reviews after premiering at the 2021 New York Film Festival last month. You can view the original trailer below:
The film is slated to take on a stripped down approach to the classic story, mostly preserving its iambic pentameter dialogue and reducing its visuals to stark, silvery cinematography with highly contrasting imagery that makes the most out of its use of shadow and light to reflect the inner conflict of its characters. In the tradition of many A24-released films, it also has an unusual aspect ratio, coming in at a tall 1.37:1.
The film co-stars Corey Hawkins as Macduff and Brendan Gleeson as King Duncan.
You can catch The Tragedy of Macbeth when it gets a limited theatrical release on December 25th 2021 and hitting Apple TV+ for streaming on January 14, 2022.