Weinstein Company Nabs US and Canadian Rights for ‘Macbeth,’ Starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard

Michael Fassbender is hot. The Weinstein Company has picked up US and Canadian rights to Justin Kurzel’s big-screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” from Studio Canal, which will star Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. 

Jacob Koskoff and Todd Louiso (“The Marc Please Experience”) have co-penned the script.

In case the name Justin Kurzel doesn’t ring a bell, the Aussie director helmed 2011’s brilliant and utterly disturbing “Snowtown,” which focused on the real-life case of a young teen and his mother’s boyfriend brutally killing a number of their atrophying small town’s inhabitants and drifters.

Fassbender can currently be seen in Steve McQueen’s highly praised “12 Years a Slave.” While there’s Oscar buzz for Fassbender’s performance (among many other performances in the film), the actor has opted out of strenuous awards-season campaigning. He’s got Ridley Scott’s violent drug-deal-gone-bad thriller “The Counselor” hitting theaters this weekend, and just began shooting a Western, “Slow West,” in New Zealand; for that film, he’s also producing, a first for the actor.

Meanwhile, Cotillard won praise from critics in Cannes for James Gray’s flat period drama “The Immigrant,” which is still waiting on a 2014 US release date.