Martin Scorsese to film Kenneth Branagh’s Macbeth

Hollywood director Martin Scorsese is turning Kenneth Branagh’s stage adaptation of Macbeth into a film – and will be filming it at the Second World War Leavesden Aerodrome in Hertfordshire.

Branagh, who first brought the play to Manchester International Festival two years ago, before taking it to New York (where it caught the attention of Scorsese) in 2014, will reprise his role as the fatally ambitious Shakespearean anti-hero.

Branagh and Scorsese are also hoping to reunite as many of the original cast, which included Doctor Who star Alex Kingston as Lady Macbeth, as possible.

The film is expected to be more of a documentary piece than a straight Macbeth adaptation, following Branagh and his actors as they perform at Leavesden across a period of several weeks.

In 2013, Telegraph theatre critic Dominic Cavendish, who saw Branagh’s Macbeth in Manchester, described the production as “one of the Scottish Play’s great revivals”, and praised the actor-director’s performance in the lead role.

Branagh, whose live action Cinderella movie was released earlier this year, announced last month that he is launching his own theatre company – the aptly named Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company – and will be presenting  a season of five shows at London's Garrick Theatre, between October 2015 and November 2016.

Cinderella stars Lily James and Richard Madden and Judi Dench are among the actors joining the company.