Expecting something a little less CGI-laden from Roland Emmerich for his 16th Century conspiracy thriller about William Shakespeare? Think again.
“There is a lot of green screen, a lot of special effects,” actor Xavier Samuel told GQ. “They’re really re-creating the London from that time. It’s going to be quite visually spectacular. I play the Earl of Southampton. He’s one of the only people that Shakespeare ever dedicated his work to.”
The film centers on a conspiracy that Shakespeare was in fact not the wordsmith we perceive him to be today but rather just “some illiterate actor who was putting his name to plays he didn’t even write. It’s a thriller.” Shooting is taking place in Berlin with a cast consisting of Edward Hogg, David Thewlis, Vanessa Redgrave, Rhys Ifans, Joely Richardson and Rafe Spall (one of the two Andy’s in Edgar Wright’s “Hot Fuzz”) as Shakespeare himself on what we imagine will be Emmerich’s version of Oscar bait.
