Emmerich to Direct Blockbuster Film on Edward de Vere
Two online news sources for the movie industry, IGN Insider and Empire Online, report that Roland Emmerich, director of such Hollywood blockbusters as Godzilla, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, has his sights set on producing a film about Edward de Vere as Shakespeare. The film, Soul of the Age, is based on a screenplay by John Orloff. A May 11 press release from ScreenDaily describes The Soul of the Age as a $30m to $35m “intense 16th century drama about the question of the authorship of Shakespeare.”
ScreenDaily says Soul “is the story of Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford who lived from 1550 to 1604 and was considered one of the finest poets and dramatists in the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Only in the 20th century did theories emerge that he was the true author of the works of William Shakespeare.”