It was the cry of all hail Macbeth at the Cannes Film Festival, as a new film version of Shakespeare's 'Scottish play' was unveiled to huge acclaim.

Competing for the prestigious Palme d'Or, and starring X-Men's Michael Fassbender as the treacherous warrior Macbeth and Marion Cotillard as his manipulative paramour Lady Macbeth, leading trade paper Variety called it "scarcely improvable...a Shakespeare pic for the ages."

Already set to be released in the UK in October, a prime slot in the awards season, the film now looks set to be a strong contender at next year's Oscars, with veteran Academy Award campaigner Harvey Weinstein overseeing the release in America. All of which is good news for the Scottish tourist board, with hopes that the film's use of the Isle of Skye, where stunning location scenes were shot, will fuel a boom in visitors.

At a press conference, Australian director Justin Kurzel paid tribute to the Scottish landscape that inspired his production. "Doing an intimate play like this in Scotland in winter was extremely difficult but extremely important," he said. "There was something about being in Scotland that completely defined this film and reminded me of how small landscape like that [can make] us all feel and how intimidating it can be."

It meant Fassbender and Cotillard were forced to brave the elements. The actor endured "freezing" temperatures for one scene where he's seen bathing, top off, in a stretch of water.

The French actress came a cropper, according to Kurzel, when she plunged into a bog-hole. Cotillard downplayed the "rough" conditions, however. "I didn't really find anything negative," she said, "the wind, the cold, the hail served the story."

For Cotillard, who won an Oscar for her work in La Vie En Rose, working in Scotland was the realisation of a childhood fantasy. "I've always dreamt about going to Scotland. In fact, ever since I was a child, I've always been fascinated by pictures of Scotland. I'd never had an opportunity to go...the first time I went there was for this film. And I discovered all the mystery of the elements that I had dreamt about."

Fassbender evidently had other things on his mind than the weather when it came to making the first major movie of Macbeth since Roman Polanski's 1971 version.

He admitted it was "terrifying" to take on the role, but at least he had plenty of fuel to calm the nerves. Asked about the best and worst things of working in Scotland, he quipped: "whisky and whisky".