Roland Emmerich blows up Shakespeare in this trailer for Anonymous

Trailer: In Director Roland Emmerich takes us back to Elizabethan times with a story about the truth behind Shakespeare.

Director Roland Emmerich has made a career out of disaster themed movies. Typically he has the world doing its best to actively kill us pesky humans, whether it be through ice in The Day After Tomorrow, aliens in Independence Day, or whatever that was in 2012. His movies are spectacles, and they are designed to entertain through disaster. In his newest film though, Emmerich brings the disaster to a smaller group of people—English majors.

The story of Anonymous questions whether or not Shakespeare actually wrote his own plays. Set during the succession of Queen Elizabeth (Vanessa Redgrave), Anonymous follows the possible “real Shakespeare”, the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere (Rhys Ifans), as a battle between the Tudors and the Cecils looms over who will succeed the queen.

Through a series of strange events, de Vere hides his identity behind a proxy. He then sire’s an illegitimate child with the Queen, who may or may not be his mother. And thus English majors heads’ everywhere will begin to explode.

It is actually not an original theory, weird though it may be. The story is based on the obscure “Oxfordian theory”, which claims that de Vere actually wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare.  There are several reasons why this theory persists, but one of the most significant is that Oxford’s life shared many similarities to the plays of Shakespeare, especially Hamlet. To fans of Shakespeare, it is an interesting theory in the same way that Ebola is an interesting disease, but it is a theory that has held up throughout the centuries.

Anonymous hits theaters on September 30, 2011.

Does The Dark Tower have its Roland?

According to sources close to the project, Oscar Winner Javier Bardem has been offered the role of Roland in Ron Howard’s movie and TV adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series.

It is already shaping up to be one of the most ambitious projects ever under taken in Hollywood, and it is still years from reaching theaters. The plan is massive. Director Ron Howard has a vision to take the 7-novel series of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, and film three feature films for the big screen, with two seasons of a TV series to air between the first and second, then second and third movies. It will be ambitious, and will heavily rely on the capability of the actors and actresses involved who will be forced to carry the franchise for five years. It will require a commitment from the cast, and confidence in that cast from the crew. According to a report from Deadline, Ron Howard and Universal have the man they want, and the lead role is Javier Bardem’s if he wants it.

If he accepts, Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Biutiful) would play the central character of the series, the gunslinger Roland. While the project could certainly be lucrative and launch the already famous Bardem into super-stardom, it would also be a massive commitment. The project will air over a course of five years, and although the semantics of it are still being worked out, it would likely film all three movies and both seasons of the TV show at the same time—or very closely together in order to keep the franchise moving.

The first movie would begin the series, then lead into a six or seven part mini-series that would likely air the next year. The year after that, the second movie would hit theaters, which would then be followed by what the producers are calling a full season’s worth of TV—either 13 or 22 episodes. A third movie would then conclude the series. The second TV series would be a prequel, which would mean that the actor cast as Roland would be replaced by a younger man to play the role. Bardem—if he accepts—would star in all three films as well as the first TV series. Universal would split the films and television season between its own movie and home entertainment groups.

So the ball is in Bardem’s court, and an offer has reportedly been made. Can Bardem fill the shoes of Roland? Is he what you imagined the gunslinger to look like? Sound off below!