THE dramatic landscape of Skye is providing the stage for the latest big screen version of Shakespeare's Scottish play.
The new cinematic version of Macbeth stars Michael Fassbender in the title role and is being directed by Justin Kurzel.
Marion Cotillard, an Oscar-winning French actress, plays the role of Lady Macbeth.
Scottish arts funding body, Creative Scotland, awarded £200,000 towards the film's production.
As well as Skye, the film, which, like the play, is set in medieval Scotland, will shoot scenes in England.
The film, being made by StudioCanal and Film4, also stars Paddy Considine, David Thewlis, Sean Harris and Elizabeth Debicki.
Unlike more modern retellings of the tale, however, the new version is set in war-torn 11th-century Scotland.
Cotillard replaced Natalie Portman in the production in August last year.
Jacob Koskoff and Todd Louiso have written the script based on the play.
A statement from Studio-Canal said the film would be "a thrilling interpretation of the dramatic realities of the times and a truthful reimagining of what wartime must have been like for one of Shakespeare's most famous and compelling characters".
The film is being produced by See Saw, the company behind Shame and The King's Speech.
Last year, Tessa Ross, head of Film4, described Kurzel as "an exceptional director". Kurzel previously directed Snowtown, a low budget horror film.
Ms Ross said she was very excited at the "prospect of his visceral and urgent work" along with the extraordinary cast.
Fassbender, 36, has become one of the film world's biggest stars and is in the running for an Oscar for his role in the acclaimed drama 12 Years a Slave.
Raised in Ireland, he came to prominence in Steve McQueen's film Hunger, about the hunger striker Bobby Sands, played by Fassbender.
He also starred in Prometheus, parts of which were also filmed on Skye.
Other notable versions of Macbeth include those directed by Orson Welles in 1948, Roman Polanski in 1971 and Geoffrey Wright in 2006, which was set in a modern-day gangster setting.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article