Development and
Playboy Enterprises provided funding for the film. Director
Roman Polanski had been interested in adapting a Shakespeare play since he was a student in
Kraków, Poland, but he did not begin until after the murder of his pregnant wife,
Sharon Tate, and three of the couple's mutual friends by members of the
Manson Family at his house in
Beverly Hills on the night of 9 August 1969. Following the murders, Polanski sank into deep depression, and was unhappy with the way the incident was depicted in the media, in which his films seemed to be blamed. At the time, he was working on the film
The Day of the Dolphin, a project that collapsed and was turned over to another director,
Mike Nichols. While in
Gstaad, Switzerland during the start of 1970, Polanski envisioned an adaptation of
Macbeth and sought out his friend, British theatre critic
Kenneth Tynan, for his "encyclopedic knowledge of Shakespeare". In turn, Tynan was interested in working with Polanski because the director demonstrated what Tynan considered "exactly the right combination of fantasy and violence". Around this time Richard Burton was discussing producing a version of
Macbeth starring Elizabeth Taylor as Lady Macbeth from a script by
Paul Dehn. "I'd rather put it together than appear in it," said Burton, adding "I'm not very confident getting it on in the present conditions in the film industry."
Scripting Tynan and Polanski found it challenging to adapt the text to suit the feel of the film. Tynan wrote to Polanski, saying, "the number one
Macbeth problem is to see the events of the film from his point of view". During the writing process, Polanski and Tynan acted out their scenes in a
Belgravia, London apartment, with Tynan as Duncan and Polanski as Macbeth. As with the 1948 film version of
Hamlet, the soliloquies are presented naturalistically as
voiceover narration.
Finance Paramount Pictures,
Universal Pictures and
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer declined to finance the project, seeing a Shakespeare play as a poor fit for a director who achieved success with ''
Rosemary's Baby (1968). Hugh Hefner, who published Playboy'', had produced a few films with
Playboy Enterprises and was eager to make more when he met Polanski at a party. The budget was set at $2.4 million. Hefner's involvement was announced in August 1970. The
Evening Standard reported "I understand that this new version will have a high content of sex and violence." In April 1971 Columbia Pictures announced they had signed a three-year deal with Playboy Enterprises to make at least four films together the first of which was
Macbeth.
Casting played
Lady Macbeth. Due to a feeling that the characters of
Macbeth were more relatable to young people in the 1960s than experienced, elder actors, Polanski deliberately sought out "young and good-looking" actors for the parts of Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth.
Francesca Annis and
Jon Finch were 26 and 29, respectively, with Tynan remarking characters over 60 were too old to be ambitious. Polanski wanted to cast either
Victoria Tennant or
Tuesday Weld in the role of Lady Macbeth. Weld rejected the role, unwilling to perform the nude scene. The role was also turned down by
Glenda Jackson who said "I don't fancy six weeks on location, walking through that damned gorse for next to no money." Casting of the role did not happen until just before the film started. Annis accepted the role after some reluctance, as she agreed the character should be older, but was easy to persuade to join the cast. Annis called the film "75 percent Shakespeare and 25 percent Polanski" saying "there is nothing to get excited about" her nude scene. "I simply walk across a room." Polanski's first choice for Macbeth was
Albert Finney, who rejected the role, after which Tynan recommended
Nicol Williamson, but Polanski felt he was not attractive enough. Finch was better known for appearing in
Hammer Film Productions pictures such as
The Vampire Lovers and the television series
Counterstrike. Finch met Polanski on a Paris-London plane and auditioned several times. For the scene where the
Three Witches and numerous others perform "Double, double, toil and trouble" in the nude, Polanski had difficulty hiring
extras to perform. As a result, some of the witches are cut from cardboard. Polanski had a few of the elderly extras sing "
Happy Birthday to You" while naked for a video, sent to Hefner for his 45th birthday.
Filming was a filming location.
Macbeth was filmed in various locations around the British Isles, starting in
Snowdonia in
Wales in October 1970. A considerable amount of shooting took place in
Northumberland on the northeast coast of England, including
Lindisfarne Castle,
Bamburgh Castle and beach, St. Aidan's Church and North Charlton Moors near
Alnwick. Interior scenes were shot at
Shepperton Studios; The production was troubled by poor weather, and the cast complaining of Polanski's "petulance". Fight director
William Hobbs likened the long
rehearsals in the rain to "training for the
decathlon". Polanski personally handled and demonstrated the
props and rode horses before shooting, and walked into animal feces to film goats and sheep. It was common for the director to snatch the camera away from his cameramen. He also decided to use special effects to present the "dagger of the mind", believing viewers may be puzzled or would not enjoy it if the dagger did not appear on screen, but was merely described in the dialogue. The great challenges in portraying the catapult of fireballs into the castle led to Polanski calling it "special defects". . By mid January the film was behind schedule. The completion guarantors arranged for
Peter Collinson to be hired and filmed scenes in Shepperton. Polanski justified the film's inefficiency, blaming "shitty weather", and agreed to give up one-third of the rest of his salary, on top of which Hefner contributed another $500,000 to complete the film.
Music For the film score, Polanski employed the
Third Ear Band, a musical group which enjoyed initial success after publishing their album
Alchemy in 1969. The band composed original music for the film, by adding electronic music to hand drums,
woodwinds and
strings.
Recorders and
oboes were also used, inspired by
Medieval music in Scotland. Additionally, elements of
music in India and the Middle East and
jazz were incorporated into the score. In the scene where King Duncan is entertained as Macbeth's castle,
lutes are played, and
Fleance sings "Merciless Beauty" by
Geoffrey Chaucer, though his lyrics did not fit the film's time frame. While the score has some Middle Ages influence, this is not found in the scenes where Duncan is assassinated and Macbeth is killed. Polanski and the band used
aleatoric music for these scenes, to communicate chaos. ==Release==