Anthony Head

Anthony Stewart Head, who plays Duncan in a futuristic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, told reporters that the film is waiting for Head to return for re-shoots. As Head is working on the upcoming BBC/NBC series Merlin, they could be waiting indefinitely.

"That last I heard of it, somebody called me who was editing it and said, ’We’ve got a few issues with various things that might need re-shooting,’" Head said in a conference call on Monday while promoting Merlin. "And I thought, ’Well, you kind of had me when you had me. I’m shooting in France. I can’t really do it.’ So I don’t know what’s going on with that, but there were just a few issues of things differing from one scene to another. What I saw and what I was in was great, and I sincerely hope it will get some kind of release."

First-time filmmaker Nicholas Paton attracted Head with his ambitious take on Shakespeare’s tragedy. "It was actually a bunch of young guys who came to me," Head said. "They were from all different walks, some actors, some trainee directors. They were putting together this fairly amateur film, but the idea was that it was projected into the future. It was fairly dark, and it was kind of gang warfare. It was very cool. I was attracted. They showed me some of the stuff that they had already shot."

Head added that the dialogue remains faithful to Shakespeare, though the new context changes things slightly. "Basically I play Duncan as a used-car salesman," he said.

A truly bizarre-sounding "futuristic" adaptation of Macbeth is stuck in post-production, as the filmmakers wait for Anthony Stewart Head, who plays Duncan, to return for reshoots.

During a conference call promoting his new series Merlin, the shooting schedule for which is preventing him from doing any more work on Macbeth, Head seemed slightly passive-aggressive as he explained where the project stands:

"That last I heard of it, somebody called me who was editing it and said, ’We’ve got a few issues with various things that might need re-shooting. And I thought, ’Well, you kind of had me when you had me. I’m shooting in France. I can’t really do it.’ So I don’t know what’s going on with that, but there were just a few issues of things differing from one scene to another. What I saw and what I was in was great, and I sincerely hope it will get some kind of release."

The movie itself sounds gloriously weird. This particular Macbeth apparently started as an amateur film project before they managed to snag Anthony Stewart Head to play Duncan, and it involves gang warfare in a futuristic setting. The movie will retain the original Shakespearean dialogue, but apparently the radically different context has caused some changes, as one might reasonably expect.

Director Nicholas Paton, who adapted the play with Fergus March (who also plays the title role), provided a tantalizing description of Head’s role way back in 2006:

"Tony plays Duncan as a spitting, cigar-chomping criminal leader, with a soft Glaswegian accent that can turn in an instant from warm and affectionate to fatally menacing. As Duncan he plays a pivotal role in the film - he is both Macbeth’s boss and paternal figure, whom Macbeth is driven to murder by his own uncontrollable ambition. The murder of Duncan reflects the loss of the last of the old-school gangsters as a new generation rise to power, a generation without the same moral sensibilities and rules of conduct as Duncan’s - much as Brando’s Don Corleone is ousted by a younger more reckless generation in The Godfather."

Head’s description of how he saw the role, on the other hand, is completely befuddling and only makes me want to see this movie all the more: "Basically I play Duncan as a used-car salesman." I have absolutely no idea how a combination of Macbeth, gangs, and the future could lead Anthony Stewart Head to see the King of Scotland as a used car salesman, but consider me officially intrigued.