Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard Turn Murderous in 'Macbeth' Trailer

Something wicked this way comes! Here’s the official U.S. trailer for Macbeth, starring Michael Fassbender as the titular throne-seeker and Marion Cotillard as his scheming wife. This bleak, violent adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy (in theaters December 4) comes from Justin Kurzel, who also directed Fassbender and Cotillard in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie. Watch the new trailer above.

Kurzel’s Macbeth, a finalist for the Palme d’Or prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, was filmed partially on location in Scotland to evoke the setting of the original play. In Shakespeare’s classic work, the Scottish war hero Macbeth is told by a trio of witches that he is destined to become king. Galvanized by the prophecy and aided by his ruthless wife Lady Macbeth, the ambitious general begins murdering all who stand in the way of his ascension — until the vicious spree leads to his downfall.

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Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender arrive at the screening of ‘Macbeth’ at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2015. (Arthur Mola/Invision/AP)

In the new version, the prophetic witches are hallucinations, brought on by Macbeth’s post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from war. Cotillard also told the press at Cannes that her Lady Macbeth, often portrayed as a vicious manipulator, was more “damaged” than evil. Kurzel agreed, saying that the Macbeths in his version are more motivated by trauma and despair than political ambition and greed. “The tragedy about this couple is they look around them and everything they want is in the people and families around them,” he said at Cannes.

The last major adaptation of Macbeth was Roman Polanski’s 1971 version, though the best-regarded may be Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 Japanese adaptation Throne of Blood.

This isn’t the only ill-tempered, oddly prescient leader Fassbender will play this year: In October, he stars in the title role of Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin’s biopic Steve Jobs.

Image credit: The Weinstein Company