James McAvoy is set to star as the ill-fated eponymous character of William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'. 

The 'Atonement' star will play the part of the theatrical crazed King in the new production directed by Jamie Lloyd at the new Trafalgar Studios in Whitehall, London now to be known as Traf Transformed. It is set to run from February 9th until  April 27th 2013 and the Scottish actor has recently told the Daily Mail that he is glad to have the opportunity before he hit his forties because he doesn't want to be 'too old' to play him in future despite the fact that Patrick Stewart once portrayed the actor in his 60s. 'I don't think there's any age he has to be, but in my mind he's a captain of men and doing the fighting', he said. 'He's someone who has recently found out what it's like to rip someone's head off, stick it on a pike and stick it on a castle, and that sounds to me like a young man's game.'

He went on to summarise: 'Whenever I see Macbeth he's 40-plus. Anyway, my point is that I've always wanted to play him, and I've always wanted to do it before I hit my 40s.'