According to "Kings of Scotland: The X-Men actors portraying Macbeth," a new movie version of Shakespeare's Macbeth is being filmed on location on the Isle of Skye, with "the lead role [being] filled by Michael Fassbender," three of whose fellow X-Men stars have previously played the role of the Scottish king (2014).
This is exciting news. I think the X-Men films are great, and Macbeth is definitely great (now that I'm no longer a twelve year old being hit over the head with it). In fact, now that I think about it, both pieces of dramatic work have a lot in common: lots of action (battles, murder, lovers tiffs, etc), strange people (witches, x-men), and themes of good versus evil, with good winning in the end at some cost. But Shakespeare has a lot more deaths on the side of the good people. And I guess another theme is how power corrupts. In X-Men, Magneto is corrupted by his powers, and Macbeth's power as a wealthy nobleman makes him susceptible to the witches prediction that he will be king, leading him and his charming wife, who longs to be queen, to kill their present king when he visits for one evening.
Another similarity is that the genius of Shakespeare makes Macbeth sort of likeable - he really does seem to be a decent, fun loving guy undone by circumstances - and he didn't really want to kill King Duncan. It was his bloody-minded wife who taunted him into it. And in the X-Men films, Magneto is a much more attractive character than the always goodie-goodie Professor Xavier. Could anything be more cool than Magneto's escape from his plastic prison cell in the second film? Perhaps Magneto attracts me more because he does seem more real thanks to his faults, his bad moods, and so on, which also makes him a more rounded character, like the regicidal Macbeth. If I had to nominate a favourite character on the good side in the X-Men films, it would be Wolverine - who again has plenty of not so positive characteristics, and is also sexy. So, who is your favourite character in the X-Men films? And if you've seen or read Macbeth, how do you feel towards Macbeth?
I'm looking forward to seeing both the new X-Men film and the new film version of Macbeth.
__________
Reference
Kings of Scotland: The X-Men actors portraying Macbeth. (2014, May 1). BBC News Highlands & Islands. Retrieved May 3, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-27238320
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