Famed Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa, created a Japanese production of Macbeth in 1957, but was hardly ever going to have it take place in Scotland. Instead, he had the setting of the play in feudal Japan, calling it Throne of Blood. The plot is the same, but the setting makes the movie more understandable and accessible for a Japanese audience. Also, for the media portion of the assignment, note that for this poster, there is numerous scenes depicted. My suggestion is that you could consider doing something like this, but only if you have the time.
More recently, in 1990, the play was converted into a Chicago mafia movie entitled Men of Respect. By taking Shakespeare's play and adding the bonus of the ever-popular mafia genre, audiences in North America were able to sink into the plot of Macbeth without having to be put-off by Shakespeare's language. The poster here is very traditional in its style - main characters standing out, the title of the movie and a tag-line.
In 2001, the movie Scotland, PA was introduced, where the action is moved to 1970s Pennsylvania and revolves around Joe Macbeth and his wife Pat taking control of a hamburger cafe from Norm Duncan. This is a real clever re-imagining of the play set in a banal form of life. Notice the simplicity yet effectiveness of the poster - the bloody spatula really emphasizes the tone and topic of the movie.
Finally, in 2004, Indian director Vishal Bharadwaj directed his own adaptation to Macbeth, titled Maqbool, which is set in the contemporary Mumbai underworld and is faithful to the plot and much of the dialogue, but has the traditions and concepts of a Bollywood movie. The poster is in the same style as that of Men of Respect.
So you see - like every director, you are only bound by the limits of your imagination.
We will discuss each version of the movie in more detail in class. You can look at the movies further if you so wish at IMDB
Enjoy!
