Joel Coen's 'The Tragedy of Macbeth' to close BFI London Film Festival

The A24 and Apple Original film, also starring Bertie Carvel, Alex Hassell, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling, Brendan Gleeson, and Kathryn Hunter, will receive its European premiere on October 17 at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall, with the director expected to attend. Written and directed by Joel Coen and produced by Joel Coen, Frances McDormand, and Robert Graf, the film is a bold and fierce adaptation of Shakespeare's classic, a tale of murder, madness, ambition, and wrathful cunning, the festival said in a release announcing its premiere. 

"Shakespeare belongs to the world but comes from Britain. Having borrowed your cultural patrimony, and having had the great good luck to work with a few of your most brilliant actors, I'm honored to bring this movie to the London Film Festival for its European premiere,'' the director said in a statement. 

Tricia Tuttle, BFI London Film Festival Director, said the film was a perfect celebration of cinema at a time when many missed the big screen experience in 2020. 

"We fell in love with Joel Coen's adaptation of Shakespeare's Scottish Play,'' Tuttle said. "Poised in a magical space between theatre and cinema, this is a stunning production... So many of us missed the big screen experience last year, and this (is) a perfect celebration of this art form that's built on ancient traditions of storytelling but with truly magical powers to convey intimacy and awesome scale and spectacle. It's such a privilege to be closing the LFF with a film of this extraordinary caliber and welcoming Joel Coen and his collaborators to the festival." Joel has previously co-directed films with his brother Ethan. This is the first time that he has worked on a film on his own. Together with the Coen Brothers, as they are known, have made classics such as ''Fargo'', ''The Big Lebowski'', ''No Country for Old Men'', ''True Grit'', ''Inside Llewyn Davis'' and ''The Ballad of Buster Scruggs''. The festival had previously announced Jeymes Samuel's ''The Harder They Fall'', starring Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Delroy Lindo, LaKeith Stanfield, Danielle Deadwyler, Edi Gathegi, R.J. Cyler, Damon Wayans Jr., and Deon Cole with Regina King and Idris Elba, as the opening night film. 

The LFF's Headline Gala will be Jane Campion's ''The Power of the Dog'', starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. 

The festival runs from October 6 to 17.