Take a moment to appreciate a screenplay that combines Act 3, Scene IV of Macbeth with the fantasy world of The Lord of the Rings. This creative fusion was a class assignment for my ELA IB HL course during my grade 11 year. Our task was to rewrite a scene from Macbeth in a genre of our choice. My group and I chose to reimagine Macbeth within the context and plot of The Lord of the Rings, infusing it with elements of fantasy.
What started as a class project quickly grew into a passionate endeavor. My group and I worked furiously on this project, from brainstorming to writing the script to creating the props/setting to dressing ourselves up to filming to cutting the videos to recording voice overs to HAND DRAWING the animations to putting everything together and adding special effects to, finally, putting together a humorous and fascinating screenplay --- and watching it about 100+ times.
So why Lord of the Rings? This is in fact a question that I want you to percolate on. Try to discover the nuances and special parallels between Gollum and Macbeth. Hint: What does the double-character Gollum reflect about Macbeth's double-sided nature?
Would you like to follow along what we are saying? Here is our script:
Macbeth and Lord of the Rings Screenplay Script
Do you think you understand the nuances of our play? Take a look at our original plan to see if you noticed these details!
Macbeth and Lord of the Rings Screenplay Planning
Here are our reflections on this whole process: