Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
ErmengardeStopSniveling
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/18
#1Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 9/21/21 at 9:21am
Looks exciting from this TINY tease!
This is one of the several projects that Scott Rudin stepped away from (the others this season being The Humans and Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch)
The runtime is under two hours, so Coen has done some serious cutting here.
#2Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 9/21/21 at 9:32amMacbeth isn’t a very long play.
#3Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 9/21/21 at 9:32am
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Updated On: 9/21/21 at 09:32 AM
#4Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 9/21/21 at 9:53am
Like TotallyEffed said, Macbeth rarely runs as long as other Shakespeare. It usually runs about 2 and a half hours. Cut the intermission and any set transitions and that gets you pretty close to 2 hours right there.
#5Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 9/21/21 at 9:57am
Macbeth is already a short play, and there’s plenty of fat to cut still, from a pure storytelling standpoint.
This looks like it’ll be interesting. I just grabbed tickets for the October 9th showing at Lincoln Center.
#6Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 9/21/21 at 9:57amThe cast and crew are great but I just can’t get excited for this. We just had a great Macbeth film a few years ago!
#7Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 9/21/21 at 10:12am
n2nbaby said: "The cast and crew are great but I just can’t get excited for this. We just had a great Macbeth film a few years ago! "
personally disagree. I thought that film was abysmal. Some of the most misguided, poorly-executed actor-direction I’ve ever seen in a Shakespeare film. A huge misfire IMO.
This one looks much better to me, especially with those 2 actors at the helm. My only hesitation is that I’m not a big fan of the Coen bros’ usual style, but I’m very excited to see how he does on his own, and to see what he can do with Shakespeare.
But I do agree with you on the sense that Macbeth doesn’t really need another film adaptation. There are so many Shakespeare plays that would really benefit from another (or a first) major film adaptation. But demand for them has shrunk a lot this past decade. The last one we got was the Midsummer with Lily Rabe from 2017, and that can barely be called “major” - just that it was the last one to play in theatres. And Midsummer has also been done to death.
And yes, of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Macbeth is perhaps the easiest to do with a shorter runtime. I’ve seen some great productions that clocked in at 90-100 minutes.
#8Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 9/21/21 at 10:18amPolanski’s Macbeth is the best film version and I also wish they’d start tackling other Shakespeare plays. Macbeth is done over and over again, it seems.
ErmengardeStopSniveling
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/18
#9Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 9/21/21 at 12:08pm
I stand corrected on the runtime!! Def some cuts (this is listed as 105 minutes online). Feels like a great scary, oldschool adaptation...will be interesting to watch when it's on Apple TV in January.
KevinKlawitter
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/21/20
#10Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 8/14/25 at 10:49pm
For those of us who are not Apple-inclined, this and a few other Apple movies (such as CODA and Greyhound) are now available for VOD purchase.
Updated On: 8/14/25 at 10:49 PM
jimmycurry01
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/05
#11Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 8/15/25 at 7:36am
KevinKlawitter said: "For those of us who are not Apple-inclined, this and a few other Apple movies (such asCODAandGreyhound) are now available for VOD purchase."
It's also pretty easy to pop on to eBay and grab an awards screener for this one. I think I got mine for under $10.
ErmengardeStopSniveling
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/18
#12Joel Coen's adaptation of MACBETH with Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
Posted: 8/16/25 at 1:08pm
On the subject of Apple releases and Denzel Washington:
Spike Lee's latest, Highest 2 Lowest, is a great New York movie and has a murderer's row of Broadway folk in prominent roles: LaChanze, John Douglas Thompson, Michael Potts, Wendell Pierce, Fred Weller, cameos from Anthony Ramos and Rosie Perez, and a music track by Norm Lewis! In addition to Denzel and Jeffrey Wright as the two leads. Screenplay is credited to Alan Fox, who wrote the play Safe Space which Mercedes Ruehl starred in at Bay Street six years ago.
In theaters now before it goes on Apple in September.
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