Anonymous (2011)

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Overview

Anonymous is a Roland Emmerich directed political thriller. The film takes place in the 17th Century and follows Edward de Vere-the purported "true" author of Shakespeare's work throughout his life. The film depicts De Vere as the illegitimate child of Queen Elizabeth I. The film depicts Shakespeare as working for De Vere who allowed Shakespeare to be credited for the many plays the film alleges De Vere wrote.

Creation

The four prime suspects in the Shakespeare Authorship conspiracy theories

The film's plot is centered around one of the most famous conspiracy theories of history-the theory that Shakespeare was a fraud and that someone else wrote the works that were credited to him. The main character Edward De Vere is commonly held to be the real Shakespeare and is the most popular of the several "suspects" that were alleged to have really written Shakepseare's famous works.

Emmerich only became familiar with the conspiracies after he read John Orloff's about them. The script Orloff wrote was something he came up with in the 1980's after finding out that a biography of Shakepseare on Frontline was based on little fact and much of the content was speculation. He wrote the script for a film about the theories in the late 1990's but after 1998's Shakespeare in Love; the project was then shelved as nobody was interested in a film attacking the legacy of William Shakespeare.