Earlier this month Kellvin Chavez at LATINO REVIEW asked filmmaker Roland Emmerich to discuss his movie project ANONYMOUS (formerly SOUL OF THE AGE) about Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford as “William Shakespeare” and he replied:
“Well, for me there was an incredible script that I bought eight years ago. It was called ‘Soul of the Age,’ which pretty much is the heart of the movie still. It’s three characters. It’s like Ben Jonson, who was a playwright then. William Shakespeare who was an actor. It’s like the 17th Earl of Oxford who is the true author of all these plays. We see how, through these three people, it happens that all of these plays get credited to Shakespeare. I kind of found it as too much like ‘Amadeus’ to me. It was about jealousy, about genius against end (sic?), so I proposed to make this a movie about political things, which is about succession. Succession, the monarchy, was absolute monarchy, and the most important political thing was who would be the next King. Then we incorporated that idea into that story line. It has all the elements of a Shakespeare play. It’s about Kings, Queens, and Princes. It’s about illegitimate children, it’s about incest, it’s about all of these elements which Shakespeare plays have. And it’s overall a tragedy. That was the way and I’m really excited to make this movie.”
Last I heard, the cameras are expected to roll next March in Germany. Oh, Roland, you may have been controversial before, but just wait! As they say, you ain’t seen nuttin’ yet! What will the Folger do? How will the Stratford tourism industry react? The Birthplace Trust! How will teachers and professors handle the upcoming generation and its students who will be eager to investigate one of the great stories of history yet to be told?
I predict that once those floodgates open, there will be more material about this subject matter over the coming years, in print and on video or film, than on virtually any other topic. Why? Because much of the history of the modern world over the past four centuries will have to be re-written! Just think, for example, of all the biographies of other figures — such as Ben Jonson or Philip Sidney — that will have to be drastically revised to make room for the Earl of Oxford as the single greatest force behind the evolution of English literature and drama, not to mention the English language itself.
In the end, it’s not just the Literature and Drama departments that will need to change; even moreso, the History Department will be where the action is.
Onward with those floodgates!
Hank Whittemore's Shakespeare Blog 