Michael Fassbender is to play Macbeth in a new film version of the William Shakespeare tragedy, produced by the company behind Steve McQueen's Shame and the Oscar-winning The King's Speech. Screen Daily reports that the picture will be directed by the Australian film-maker Justin Kurzel, best known for his 2011 crime drama Snowtown.

Macbeth charts the rise and fall of a Scottish general, who seizes the throne with the help of his ambitious wife and eventually sparks a civil war. Shakespeare's play has been tackled in the past by directors such as Roman Polanski, Akira Kurosawa and Orson Welles, who described his 1948 adaptation as "a violently sketched charcoal drawing of a great play".

The Kurzel version will be produced by See-Saw Films from a script adapted by Todd Louiso and Jacob Koskoff. The casting of the play's other roles, including Lady Macbeth, has yet to be announced.

Fassbender made his screen debut in the sword-and-sandal epic 300, before going on to star in Eden Lake, Prometheus and Inglourious Basterds. He will next be seen in the historical drama Twelve Years a Slave, which marks his third collaboration with director Steve McQueen after Hunger and Shame. Other forthcoming projects include Frank, a film based on the life of the eccentric 1980s singer Frank Sidebottom, and the as-yet-untitled new picture from Terrence Malick.