Author of ‘British Film Studios.’
Kiri Bloom Walden, a film history author and part-time Film tutor at Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education gives her opinion of the Mancbeth project:
To put things simply, this is a really exciting project and I can’t wait to see the script come to life as a film. Lemberg transfers Shakespeare’s action from medieval Scotland to contemporary Manchester and the play works perfectly in this new setting. With the action taking place on the streets, in the pubs and clubs, we feel echoes of Trainspotting’s colourful and poetic urban violence.
Lemberg skillfully interprets the original characters and introduces novel views of the action, from CCTV screens to a rat’s point of view. Just as Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet re-imagined Shakespeare for a younger generation, (without changing the original dialogue), Lemberg’s treatment of Macbeth has the potential to reach a new, wider audience, and may also force those familiar with Shakespeare to look at the play in an entirely new way. The drugs culture makes sense of the supernatural elements of the play, giving us a believable context for Macbeth’s visions. Pills are popped and drugs are injected, giving us graphic details of the life the characters can’t escape.
With whole scenes taking place in nightclub toilets we see Macbeth and Lady Macbeth up to their neck in trouble that is far more relatable to a modern audience than the poetic setting of an ancient Scottish castle. The power struggles between gang members, fighting over patches of territory in their drug-dealing empire works so well as a setting for the story arc of Macbeth’s character. I also love the way the female characters in the play have been re-imagined, with the Three Sisters shape-shifting as a thread of changing characters through the action. ‘Lady M’ loses none of her strength and remains an iconic role.
Lemberg makes good use of cinematic techniques, using voice over, montage sequences, different shots for artistic effect etc. We see all the filmic possibilities of the story, it could look like Trainspotting, it could look like Romeo + Juliet, it could look like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’, or even Requiem for a Dream. The script gives the film makers so many opportunities, and it’s a film I can’t wait to see and the casting possibilities are truly inspiring.