Carter Burwell is set to compose the original music for the upcoming film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth. The film marks Joel Coen’s first solo directorial effort and stars Denzel Washington in the title role, Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth, as well as Brendan Gleeson, Corey Hawkins, Ralph Ineson, Moses Ingram and Harry Melling. The movie follows a Scottish lord who becomes convinced by a trio of witches that he is destined to become king of Scotland and goes to extreme and violent lengths to seize the crown. Coen also wrote the screenplay. Scott Rudin (The Social Network, No Country for Old Men, The Grand Budapest Hotel) is producing the A24 production. Burwell has previously scored most movies directed by Joel & Ethan Coen, including Fargo, True Grit, Blood Simple, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona and Burn After Reading. The Tragedy of Macbeth started principal photography in February and was shut down in March due to the pandemic. Production is expected to resume later this year and a release in 2021 is expected.
Burwell’s other recent projects include the Netflix series Space Force, which just premiered this past Friday, as well as Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, which will return for a second season.
Sometimes at the end of the movie I go scrambling to see if I can find out who scored the film. It’s not unusual for an experience like this to completely change the direction of any given day, and I might find myself back in the studio trying to figure out how to bring the sounds in my head out into the world.
Mr. Burrell is that kind of composer. Everything he is associated with he brings the golden touch of a deep understanding of the sonic world. Looking forward to this new venture with Mr. Denzel Washington.