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Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand Team Up in First Trailer for The Tragedy of Macbeth

Let Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand's Oscar campaigns begin.

The powerhouse duo star in the first teaser trailer for The Tragedy of Macbeth, written for screen and directed by McDormand's husband, Joel Cohen.

Washington stars as Lord Macbeth while McDormand, whose face isn't seen until the end of the trailer, stars as Lady Macbeth. The trailer doesn't give much other than a gloomy and foreboding theme, but it does deliver the play's most famous line.

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes," says a witchy voiceover in the trailer.

The teaser comes days before the film is set to open the New York Film Festival on Friday.

RELATED: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand to Open New York Film Festival with The Tragedy of Macbeth

Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand
Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand

Alison Cohen Rosa

According to the festival's release, The Tragedy of Macbeth serves as a "boldly inventive visualization of The Scottish Play," resulting in "an anguished film that stares, mouth agape, at a sorrowful world undone by blind greed and thoughtless ambition."

"A strikingly inward Denzel Washington is the man who would be king, and an effortlessly Machiavellian Frances McDormand is his Lady, a couple driven to political assassination — and deranged by guilt — after the cunning prognostications of a trio of 'weird sisters' (a virtuoso physical inhabitation by Kathryn Hunter)," the description adds.

The Tragedy of Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth

A24

The Tragedy of Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth

A24

RELATED: Frances McDormand Jokes 2021 Oscars Should Have Had a 'Karaoke Bar' as She Wins Best Actress

Aside from The Tragedy of Macbeth, McDormand, 64, is among the many ensemble cast members in Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, which recently had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. It also screens at the New York Film Festival.

Earlier this year, the celebrated actress accepted the Best Picture Oscar for her film Nomadland, as well as the Oscar for Best Actress.

Meanwhile, two-time Academy Award winner Washington, 66, is directing and producing A Journal for Jordan, starring Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams. The film is scheduled for release on Dec. 10.

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