One film I’m curious to see at this year’s Toronto Film Festival is Roland Emmerich‘s Anonymous as good things have already been said about Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man), starring as Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, or in this case the man presumed to have penned William Shakespeare’s plays. The story is set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her and Vanessa Redgrave as the Queen is also earning advanced buzz, just as she is for her part in Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus, which is also playing the fest.
The film is set to hit theaters on October 28 and with its Toronto appearance coming up in September I have new photos and a new international trailer for you to gaze at. See what you think and let me know if you truly believe the man best known for destroying the world in films such as 2012 and Independence Day has gone back to his The Patriot style of filmmaking and delivered a true Oscar contender. Granted, unless I’m mistaken this would be the first time an Emmerich directed performance earned a nomination should that come to pass.
As for the new pictures, once you’re done here you can click here to browse the gallery.
Set in the political snake-pit of Elizabethan England, Anonymous speculates on an issue that has for centuries intrigued academics and brilliant minds ranging from Mark Twain and Charles Dickens to Henry James and Sigmund Freud, namely: who was the author of the plays credited to William Shakespeare? Experts have debated, books have been written, and scholars have devoted their lives to protecting or debunking theories surrounding the authorship of the most renowned works in English literature. Anonymous poses one possible answer, focusing on a time when cloak-and-dagger political intrigue, illicit romances in the Royal Court, and the schemes of greedy nobles hungry for the power of the throne were exposed in the most unlikely of places: the London stage.
