Macbeth

Kurosawa's film is Macbeth moved to Sengoku Japan, with Washizu for Macbeth, Asaji for Lady Macbeth, and the three witches reduced to a single spirit at a spinning wheel in the forest. It keeps none of Shakespeare's language and all of his structure: the prophecy, the murder of the lord, the second prophecy that sounds like safety and is a trap, and the wood that moves. The staging draws on Noh rather than on Western theatre, which is why Asaji is played with a nearly fixed face and a gliding walk.

Beau Willimon has named Shakespeare as the model for the series, Richard III for Frank's asides to camera and Macbeth for the marriage. Frank and Claire are written as a couple whose ambition is shared rather than one partner's, who plan murder together and then pay for it in how they see each other, which is the Macbeths' story moved to Washington.