Was Shakespeare a Fraud?

Shakespeare did not write a single word of the plays attributed to him. Instead, an anonymous man with political motives orchestrated every word through Shakespeare’s name. So says director Roland Emmerich, screenwriter John Orloff, and an entire cast of characters in the upcoming film, Anonymous, which comes to theaters nationwide October 28, 2011.

With such a controversial topic, it’s hard to tell how audiences will take the film, especially more informed audiences that like to call themselves either “Anti-Stratfordians” or “Stratfordians.” While Stratfordians hold to Shakespeare’s absolute authorship of the renowned works of art, “Anti-Stratfordians” believe there is reasonable doubt that Shakespeare is the real author of the works. Literary greats, teachers, writers, world-renowned actors, directors and scholars such as Sigmund Freud, Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Sir John Gielgud all have held to the Anti-Stratfordian position. While some believe in group theories (i.e. that a collective group of writers is responsible for the works), others favor singular writers such as Edward De Vere — the Earl of Oxford, Francis Bacon, or Christopher Marlowe.

Anonymous chooses to focus on the possibility that the Earl of Oxford penned the works so well known today. Was it a pure coincidence that Oxford’s annotated copy of the Geneva Bible marks passages that were used by Shakespeare or that Oxford’s nickname was “spear shaker?”

Orloff said he has been fascinated by the Shakespeare authorship question since first learning about the controversy as a 25-year-old graduate student 20 years ago.

“My first thought was, ‘Why had no one told me this?!’” Orloff said. “My second thought was that this would make a fantastic film. It had everything — murder, sex, lies, betrayal — truly the stuff of Shakespearean drama.”

“Roland has such a feel for the exciting topics that get people out of their chairs,” producer Kirstin Winkler said.

According to Winkler, the film is less about being accurate and more about telling a story that opens the Shakespeare authorship question to further research and discussion.

“I certainly don’t think that the film is trying to dictate his story as the truth,” she said. “It’s just one take on the authorship question, telling one tale.”

Little is known about Shakespeare. Many find it impossible to believe that the son of an illiterate tradesman was the author of such literary masterpieces as “The Merchant of Venice,” “King Lear,” and “Henry V.” His education from a village school could never have provided Shakespeare with a vocabulary extensive enough to write the most talked about literature in the world and there is no proof that he traveled to foreign lands let alone learned to speak their native tongues. The only written documentation historians can ascribe to Shakespeare is several signatures on official documents. Shakespeare’s death in 1616 was met with silence, unlike other celebrated writers of his time, and his will mentions no books or manuscripts of any kind.

“I’m surprised that this topic hasn’t been tackled before,” said Rhys Ifans, who plays the Early of Oxford. “The body of evidence is very, very convincing, and the thought that we might be possibly teaching our students a lie is, in my opinion, shocking. It’s a claim against our intellects and our history and our understanding of the greatest writer of all times. If you re-read or approach these plays with an Oxfordian eye, it opens up new ways of looking at these works that we haven’t even touched on.”

Winker said she expects the film will be controversial.

“There is quite a radical group of Stratfordians out there who feel very strongly about preserving the image of Shakespeare as the writer of the plays and sonnets,” she said.

But controversy aside, actor David Thewlis (who plays William Cecil) said that the film works well simply as a story. “No matter what you believe, it’s a great story,” he said. “Roland is very passionate about authorship question and he wants to put it to a wider audience. He is a very mischievous man, but I think he’s been rather daring to do this story — he likes to push people’s buttons.”

Rated PG-13 for some violence and sexual content, Anonymous will be released in theaters nationwide on October 28, 2011. The cast is headed by Rhys Ifans as Edward De Vere, the Earl of Oxford, and includes Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, David Thewlis, Xavier Samuel, Sebastian Armesto, Rafe Spall, Edward Hogg, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Derek Jacobi.

Published at http://staticmultimedia.com/movies/features-interviews-movies/was-shakespeare-a-fraud.

Narnia Returns With New Twists

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The Chronicles of Narnia returns to theaters this Christmas season with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The film brings old and new plots to create another magical experience with the Pevensies. This time, Lucy and Edmund return to Narnia through a painting, bringing their selfish cousin Eustace along with them. When they meet up with King Caspian, they join him on a quest that will not only test their physical strength, but their mental and spiritual strength, as well.

On a voyage to the east, Caspian is fulfilling an oath to find the seven lost Lords of Telmar, the best friends of his murdered father. Their journey takes them to five islands, each of which brings the ship’s crew unexpected peril and adventure, and each has its own hidden, seductive secret. Caspian and his men discover the existence of an evil green mist that has powers to kidnap not just people’s bodies, but their minds as well.

A wise old magician, Coriakin, explains to Caspian and the Pevensies, that to break this deadly spell they must find the seven Lords and retrieve each of the swords gifted to them by Aslan to protect Narnia. Once collected and laid upon Aslan’s banquet table, the swords will empower them to defeat the mist and the Witch. Without this union of the seven swords, they and Narnia will be destroyed.

The swords are new to the classic story, originally penned in C.S. Lewis’ famous series. Published between 1950 and 1956 and long regarded as one of literature’s most enduring and imaginative works, Lewis’ books have sold over 100,000,000 copies in over 50 different languages. Voyage of the Dawn Treader takes a new turn with the quest for Aslan’s swords.
“In the book, the narrative thread revolves around Caspian’s search for seven Lords, but in the film, the quest is for seven swords,” director Michael Apted said. “The threat of the Green Mist, as depicted in our film, isn’t really touched on in the book The Voyage of The Dawn Treader – though it does appear in a subsequent book.”

“In the film, the quest for the seven swords is there to reinforce the purpose of Caspian’s journey to the edge of the world,” executive producer Douglas Gresham said.

Gresham, who is C.S. Lewis’ stepson, has made it a lifelong mission to bring Lewis’ books to the screen. “The film’s sword motif is an addition to the book’s story line about the seven Lords of Telmar and has been added to help drive the story forward to keep the audiences enthralled,” Gresham said.

While many fans were disappointed with the changes made in “Prince Caspian,” namely an added battle scene and a romantic subplot, those involved in the third film hope additions will enhance the plot and stay true to the themes of the original story.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a story largely about temptation,” Gresham said. “Along the journey, Caspian, Eustace, Lucy and Edmund and the entire crew of The Dawn Treader face many challenges and adventures, and cope with the accompanying temptations. Each character meets his or her deepest temptations, which we have seen glimpses of in the previous movies.”

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was very much about faith. ‘Prince Caspian’ was about losing and regaining that faith,” producer Mark Johnson said. “This new film is about overcoming temptation. We made sure that theme was an important element of our movie, in the guise of telling a great and magical story.”

As the film mixes the original classic themes with new plot elements, it also takes off in a new direction away from the land of Narnia. The story takes characters away from Narnia to various islands, but it remains Narnian, nonetheless. “In my view, The Dawn Treader is Narnia,” Apted said. “We never go to [the land of] Narnia in this story, so I always made the point that the boat is Narnia. The boat embodies everything that Narnia is. When you’re on The Dawn Treader, you’re in Narnia.”

“The Dawn Treader is more than a set; it’s a character,” Johnson said. "The vessel took about $2.7 million and almost 400 construction workers to build. Workers erected the 140-foot, 125-ton ship in an Australian seaside peninsula called Cleveland Point.

“It’s the most impressive set I’ve ever seen,” producer Andrew Adamson said. “The Dawn Treader is such an iconic symbol. To some degree, it’s almost like Aslan. When I saw the boat fully assembled for the first time and walked onto it, the experience was how I imagined it as a boy reading the book.”

Fans and movie goers will be able to take their own magic ride with the Dawn Treader when the film arrives in theaters December 10.

DVD Review: "I Am"

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While, at first look, I Am may seem like a rehashed knock-off of the controversial book The Shack, the film contains little to incite controversy. God takes on the form of an African American man in casual clothes in the film. However, His conversations with the characters of the film seem more like the quiet conversations, pleas and prayers of the heart than like face-to-face, God intervening encounters. The conversations feel like what’s presented in Romans 2:15: “They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them at other times even defending them.”

The true heart of I Am lies in the Ten Commandments, however, as the commandments are shown on the screen throughout the movie as different characters encounter the consequences of their actions taken against the commandments. Some such actions take the form of odd, unexpected sins. One woman, for example, puts “other gods before me” when she has herself frozen in order to keep herself alive. The man who freezes her after she blackmails him has visions of the woman taunting him, tempting him to kill her, and, thus, he creates a “graven image.”

Other applications of the commandments are refreshingly different. Instead of focusing on the common conception of God forbidding the use of his name as a swear word, the film shows a man using God’s name to sell a product, or “taking God’s name in vain.” Another character learns to honor the Sabbath, not by setting aside a day every week for God and church, but by taking time to rest from work and life’s troubles to spend time on the things that really matter, such as being with his family.

These situations are part of a larger plot as other commandments like the commandment to not commit adultery come into play and as the lives of the ten main characters intertwine. There’s no one consistent plot to follow, and the different stories can confuse the viewer because of the way they are organized, but the pieces come together in the end to complete a puzzle that makes viewers think about their own lives.

Ultimately, I Am is not about preaching a bunch of rules and stuffing them in the viewer’s face. Instead, it is about finding peace in life. Revenge, human love, science, alcohol, memorialization of a passed loved one and everything else can never erase the past. As the God in the film says, the past can find justice, but man can never forget. What man truly needs is peace.

Secretariat Feature

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The race is on, and starting Friday, October 8, audiences will be able to race the theater to see Disney’s latest inspirational motion picture film about a race horse and its owner. One is a massive, chestnut-colored horse, known to his friends and family as Big Red. Everyone else will call him Secretariat. The other, a self-described Denver housewife, is less recognized, but she is as gallant and charismatic as her steed. Her name is Penny Chenery Tweedy, and her faith in this horse will galvanize the nation, revolutionize horse racing and, ultimately, change her life’s course entirely.

Based on a true story, Secretariat brings the story of the 1973 Triple crown winning horse to life. The story draws fans of past horse films such as Seabiscuit, following the star horse and its owner as they strive to prove themselves to the world. Housewife and mother Penny Chenery Tweedy (Diane Lane) agrees to take over her ailing father’s Virginia-based Meadow Stables, despite her lack of horse-racing experience. Against all odds, with the help of veteran trainer Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich), she manages to navigate the male-dominated business, ultimately fostering the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years and what may be the greatest racehorse of all time.

“The story is about heart — Secretariat’s and the heart of the woman who owned him. Both were greater than anyone imagined,” said director Randall Wallace, who is the Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated screenwriter of the global hit Braveheart. “I believe that when Secretariat was running the last of his races, he was no longer running against other horses; he was running for the joy in becoming who he was meant to be.”

Wallace compared the film to an impressionistic painting, one adhering to the basic facts but not to the point of turning into a documentary.

“ESPN compiled a list of the 100 top athletes of the 20th century and Secretariat was 35th — and the only non-human on that list,” said producer Mark Ciardi. “That’s how unbelievable his presence was. What makes it really interesting is going underneath that story . We knew we had the ending, but not many people know about Penny’s story, and that was incredibly compelling to us.”

The actual Penny Chenery approved the film when producers approached her with the story idea. Chenery makes a cameo appearance in the film when Secretariat wins the Kentucky Derby.

The horse, itself, also adds its own momentum to the story.

“Horses speak to our primal nature,” said the director. “When all is said and done, this is a story about a tremendous horse. But, beyond that, I wanted to understand and experience the way this unique animal had affected people who themselves were special. All my life, I have been intrigued by the mechanism and the moment of transformation: What happens when what we call a miracle occurs? What happens when someone, in this case a horse, does something that no one else has ever done or that they themselves have never done? What happens when someone stops doubting and starts believing? And this story is full of those moments.”

Most of all, however, Secratariat is about the remarkable transformation that comes about when people, or animals, believe in each other.

“What’s at stake in the story of Secretariat is something that is fundamental to everybody. Destiny comes knocking on the door of Penny Tweedy. She had given up her dreams of a career. She had become a mother of four, a wife, a prominent member of her community. But when her father becomes ill and her mother dies, destiny knocks on her door and says, ‘Penny, here is an opportunity to do something .’ And it was something that nobody else believed that she could do. That was something else that inspired me about this tale — that time and again, she is told that she can’t do this, that this isn’t her identity, that she’s a housewife . And she keeps reinventing herself, tackling issues in a manner that allows her to make her way in what was a man’s world at the time. She’s a mastermind financially, but most of all, she’s a leader,” Wallace said

Amish Grace Review

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In all regular fashion, Hallmark provides an inspirational, moving film with Amish Grace, a docudrama following the 2006 tragedy in which a man shot and killed five Amish children and injured five others. In similar regular fashion, the film delivers poor, melodramatic acting, annoying TV blackouts place for commercial breaks, and bits of unrealistic and inaccurate information. Luckily, none of these is enough to hinder the film’s message of grace and forgiveness.

The viewer learns to forgive and love others along with the film’s main character, Ida (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), whose daughter is one of the children killed. Ida has difficulty accepting the Amish community’s way of forgiveness, especially when the community won’t forgive her sister for leaving to join the “modern English” world.

Meanwhile, the wife of the shooter deals with her own conscience and has trouble understanding the welcoming Amish community. As her life crosses paths with Ida, their journeys take new turns and they learn the true meaning of grace.

Grace leaves unfilled holes at the end of the film, however. Ida never reconciles with her husband and the Amish community over the issue of her sister’s “shunning.” Viewers are left wondering if Ida will ever see her sister again and how the film’s concept of grace applies to her sister’s “sin.”

Anyone familiar with the Amish culture will likely be annoyed by the small inaccuracies that appear throughout the film. Such factual errors and changes to the story are to be expected with a film adaptation of real events, however, especially when the film is for a TV channel with a strict budget.

Cheap TV productions come with cheap acting, as well. While the actors in Amish Grace deliver in more intense, emotional scenes, their day-to-day lines come across as canned, unrealistic, and melodramatic.

The faults of Amish Grace, however, are typical of made-for-TV dramas, and such faults have been much worse in other films than they are in Amish Grace. Viewers who watch Amish Grace without high expectations are still sure to be pleased by its inspirational message and extend some grace of their own to the film.

“You Again” has all the ingredients for being a hit Family Comedy

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High school. The biggest fight for survival that has ever existed. But when the fight between the popular kids and the not-so-popular kids makes its way to the world of adults, things get messy.

Messy doesn’t even begin to describe what’s in store for Marni (Kristen Bell) when she learns from her mother, Gail (Jamie Lee Curtis), that her arch nemesis from high school, Joanna (Odette Yustman), will be marrying her brother (James Wolk). When her family easily warms up to the bride, Marni becomes determined to prove to her family the nightmare she knows Joanna to be. The rivalry intensifies when Joanna’s aunt Ramona (Sigourney Weaver) shows up to help prepare for the wedding. Ramona is Gail’s own high school enemy, and suddenly, everyone begins to take sides.

“I’ve always been interested in producing or writing comedy with heart that is grounded in believable story-telling,” said producer John J. Strauss, screenwriter of the mega-hit There’s Something About Mary as well as Disney’s The Santa Clause 2 and “The Lizzie McGuire Movie.” “I like a relatable story that has people behaving in ways that we wish we could in real life but don’t quite. This script had those elements.”

With a classic theme and an all-star cast that includes Betty White, Kristin Chenoweth and Victor Garber, You Again promises non-stop comedy.

Weaver commented on the fun director Andy Fickman brought to the set.

“He is the only director I know who seemed to love all of us as a cast and all of our individual characters at the same time” Weaver said. “He had us all out each day singing and dancing. It was hysterical. He is a sweetheart.”

“The rapport between the cast evolved, thanks to Andy Fickman, who from the very first day set the tone,” Garber said. “The bottom line: We all really enjoyed each other. I think that’s going to translate onto film.”

Betty White also kept the cast laughing, on and off screen.

“No one is funnier than she is—on camera and off,” Fickman said. “She kept the cast and crew laughing every day . Her generous heart and spirit is matched by her beauty and grace.”

A few musical numbers will also contribute to the fun with Mary Ann Kellogg (Twyla Tharp Dance Company) choreographing.

“When you have a movie starring Kristen Bell, Victor Garber, Sean Wing, James Wolk, Christine Lakin and Kristin Chenoweth—all veterans of musical theater, if you don’t throw in two or three musical numbers, you are being wasteful,” Fickman said.

You Again has all the ingredients for being a hit family comedy: familiar family situations—an upcoming wedding, rivalries, high school nemeses—and lots of music, combined with slapstick comedy that will make people laugh out loud.

“There’s so many ways that this movie will reach you,” Weaver said. “Even though there is a lot of broad comedy, this story tackles real feelings people have left over from the struggles of high school, lost friendships and missed chances. It’s a story that resonates with all of us.”