THE DIRECTOR of a new film adaptation of Macbeth has revealed he nearly lost his Oscar-winning lead actress to a bog on the Isle of Skye.
A blockbuster reincarnation of Shakespeare’s famous “Scottish play” is set to hit screens next month, featuring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.
But Aussie director Justin Kurzel has revealed that whilst shooting on Skye last winter Oscar-winning Cotillard – playing Lady Macbeth – lost her footing and tumbled into a bog.
Kurzel – directing his first film with an all-star cast – said: ““She went in up to her neck. I thought, ‘Ah, OK. We may have lost her.’”
In a recent interview Kurzel also spoke out about the number of difficulties they encountered filming in locations across Skye.
Various scenes in the film were shot on the island – at the Old Man of Storr, Sligachan Glen, the Fairy Pools and Glen Brittle forest.
Kurzel, 41, said he initially thought shooting on Skye would mean being surrounded by “quaint little whisky pubs”, but in reality they were battered by unforgiving weather and harsh terrain.
He said: “There was something incredibly bonding about it actually.
“When you see your production designer fly across the camera because they’ve been picked up by the wind, or you see Marion Cotillard disappear down a bog hole as she’s walking along, it brings you all closer together.”
He even went as far as comparing the Scottish countryside to the unforgiving outback of his native south Australia, adding: “It was brutal. But I understood it.
“As a white Australian you’re surrounded by this vast landscape you know isn’t yours, so you’re always intimidated. You expect to vanish up a mountain or get eaten by the ground. Which is kind of what happened in Scotland.”
French actress Marion Cotillard – who won an academy award for best actress in 2007 for her portrayal of singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose – also spoke out about the filming in Scotland.
She said: “I think, as an artist, you can’t not be touched by the power of the elements in Scotland.
“There’s something about them and about the nature of the place, that is kind of mystical and you feel it whenever you look at the country. There’s much more to it than you see.”
Fassbender, playing the lead role, also noted Scotland’s famous weather, saying: “All you saw of the crew was these little eyeholes poking through wet weather gear – people who’ve been in this industry for 25 years experiencing the worst conditions they’ve ever seen.”
Kurzel and Fassbender are set to work together in the near future on a film adaptation of the hit video game Assassin’s Creed.
Filming for the movie began at the end of August, with a release date set for Christmas 2016.
