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Set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her, the story advances the theory that it was in fact Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford who penned Shakespeare's plays.
2011 · Directed by Roland Emmerich · 130 min · Drama · History · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 10 frames
Tagline
Was Shakespeare a Fraud?
Plot
In modern-day New York, Derek Jacobi arrives at a theatre where he delivers a monologue questioning the lack of manuscript writings of William Shakespeare, despite the undeniable fact that he is the most performed playwright of all time. Ben Jonson is preparing to enter the stage. The narrator offers to take the viewers into a different story behind the origin of Shakespeare's plays: "one of quills and swords, of power and betrayal, of a stage conquered and a throne lost."
Jumping to Elizabethan London, Ben Jonson is running through the streets carrying a parcel and being pursued by soldiers. He enters the theatre called The Rose and hides the manuscripts he carries as the soldiers set fire to the theatre. Ben is detained at the Tower of London to face the questioning of puritanical Robert Cecil. The writings by Edward de Vere that Robert Cecil thought Ben had are not found on him.
In a flashback of five years, an adult Edward lives, disgraced and banished from court, in the last years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The queen is old and in failing health, but, as she has remained unmarried, lacks an heir. The elderly Lord William Cecil, the Queen's primary adviser, and his son Robert manage the kingdom's affairs. A growing group of malcontent nobles gather at court, led by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who is widely believed to be Elizabeth's bastard son. The Cecils have secretly been planning to solve the succession crisis by offering the crown to Elizabeth's cousin, King James VI of Scotland; the idea of a foreign king inheriting the crown of the Tudors angers enough nobles that they begin to muster support for Essex to claim the throne when Elizabeth dies. Edward's young friend, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, is pledged to support Essex but Edward warns him against any rash action and that any move they make has to be managed carefully to avoid civil war.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: John Orloff
- Cinematography: Anna Foerster
- Edited by: Peter R. Adam
- Music: Harald Kloser, Thomas Wander
- Production design: Sebastian T. Krawinkel
- Produced by: Roland Emmerich, Robert Leger, Larry Franco
Cast
- Jamie Campbell Bower as Young Earl of Oxford
- Rhys Ifans as Edward de Vere
- David Thewlis as William Cecil
- Joely Richardson as Princess Elizabeth Tudor
- Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Elizabeth I
- Sebastian Armesto as Ben Jonson
- Rafe Spall as William Shakespeare
- Edward Hogg as Robert Cecil
- Xavier Samuel as Earl of Southampton
- Sam Reid as Earl of Essex
Production
- Country: Germany, United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Centropolis Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Studio Babelsberg
- Budget: $30,000,000
- Box office: $15,395,087
- Themes: anonymity, politics, poet, duringcreditsstinger, false history, 16th century, secrecy
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