Before now, my reaction to Coriolanus was "Oh, Ralph Fiennes is making his directing debut by adapting Shakespeare's Coriolanus and setting it in a modern-day battlefield.  That's nice."  But the UK trailer just makes me go, "This is Fiennes' directing debut?  Holy hell."  The dialogue and plot may be Shakespeare's but Fiennes has clearly amped up the setting with some sweet looking action and intense drama.  I hope this all comes together because it has an outstanding cast (Fiennes in the title role and joined by Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox, Gerard Butler, Jessica Chastain, and James Nesbitt).

As you'll gather from the trailer, the plot centers on a banished former war hero who plans to conquer his homeland.  Hit the jump to check out the madness.  Coriolanus will play at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.  It opens in the US on December 2nd and in the UK on January 20, 2012.

Trailer via The Playlist.

Here's the synopsis for Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus:

Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes), a hero of Rome, is a great soldier but despises the people. His extreme views ignite a mass riot and he is banished from Rome.  Coriolanus allies with a sworn enemy (Gerard Butler) to take his revenge on the city. As director and star, Ralph Fiennes brings William Shakespeare’s visceral history play to the big screen for the first time. Coriolanus is a drama for the ages, a commentary on the precarious draw of war and an auspicious directorial debut from one of the world’s great classical actor.

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