Here are two names we never thought we’d see in the same sentence: Roland Emmerich and William Shakespeare.
In a collision of high and low culture that sounds like something The Onion might have cooked up, Emmerich, director of such cinema spectacles as 10,000 BC, The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, and the upcoming 2012, is set to direct a movie about the great Bard.
|
|
The film, titled Anonymous, tackles the controversy over whether Shakespeare actually wrote all of the plays attributed to him. It’s no secret the prolific playwright lifted plotlines and characters from history (in the case of Julius Caesar, for example) or other sources (Romeo and Juliet was brought to the stage several times before Shakespeare’s version), but some literary historians claim the philosopher Francis Bacon or rival dramaturge Christopher Marlowe authored some, if not all, of Shakespeare’s works.
Emmerich’s Anonymous focuses on a third possible author:
It’s not Marlowe, it’s De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. [Anonymous is] kind of like a political thriller. It’s about who will succeed Elizabeth and the cause of that thriller, the Essex Rebellion, we take on and we learn how the plays were written by somebody else.
Before you start thinking that this movie is going to require some serious homework to understand, remember the director we’re talking about here. Emmerich took the scientific concept of climate change and made it seriously dumbed down in The Day After Tomorrow. So don’t worry, he won’t be requiring you to think too much. In his words, the film’s pretty well researched, but “Naturally, for dramatic reasons you sometimes alter facts.”
Naturally.
Emmerich’s last historical recreation, the ultra-violent Mel Gibson vehicle The Patriot (set during the Revolutionary War) was panned both in Arts sections and on the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times for playing so loose with facts it misrepresented history. And seeing as his plot description uses the word “thriller” twice, I get the impression he’s not going to be as interested in the writing process or the period details as the last Shakespeare biopic to play in theaters-John Madden’s Academy Award winning Shakespeare in Love.
So get ready to have your view of Shakespeare forever ruined altered. Shooting on Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous begins March 22nd of next year, though preliminary filming has already begun.
Source: ComingSoon.net
Loading ...
8 Comments
Let him go for it!
Ugh.
Vic
It sounds like it’ll do to English classes what The Da Vinci Code did to churches and what Van Helsing did to reading Dracula in English classes.
I happen to be an Oxfordian (that means I believe Edward de Vere was Shakespeare) and if this film is about who will succeed Elizabeth than it is more than likely going to focus on the Prince Tudor theory (a theory I don’t believe, but one that is common amongst Oxfordian’s nonetheless).
It basically says that De Vere and Elizabeth had a kid, and that that kid was the true heir to the throne, but because Elizabeth had built up this image of herself as “The Virgin Queen” she couldn’t very well late it out that she and De Vere were having an affair, especially since she was still in the process of finding a suitor.
Chances are, since this is Emmerich we’re talking about, it’ll be bloated down, horrible historically inaccurate, and will no doubt hurt us Oxfordians in the public, and more importantly, professional eye.
However this is no where near as bad as The Da Vinci code, in that anybody who has actually sat down and read a good number of Shakespeare’s plays will tell you that there was no way an uneducated peasant who never even left Britain was the guy behind some of the most important literature in the English language. Whether or not you believe it’s De Vere is another point entirely, but there is some truth to the “conspiracy.”
Josh– I agree that Emmerich’s film is likely to be bloated and historically inaccurate, but stand by the word conspiracy in regards to the Shakespeare authorship question. Look at Einstein–he didn’t have an advanced degree, and his scientific contributions are immense. Shakespeare was gifted, and way too prolific for me to believe that someone both wrote all those plays and lead another public life. As interesting as this all is to argue though, I also think you’re right that this movie is going to garner your theory a lot of ridicule.
Or who knows. Maybe Emmerich will surprise us all. And maybe your theory holds water. Though I’m doubtful about both!
So… spaceships? Yay, spaceships!!!
@Tim
don’t forget tidal waves!!! Woo hoo!!!
Wait I thought he was working on The Foundation Trilogy next? Oh well at least this is a good leap forward, he said one more disaster movie and thats it, and 2012 is indeed the mother of all disaster movies…EVERYTHING GETS BLOWN UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No one is spared! So A Anyonmes is next and then The Foundation Trilogy, nice to see him move up.
What's your opinion? Leave a Reply!
Go to Gravatar.com and upload your own (we'll wait)!