Emmerich Takes on Shakespeare and Foundation; Also Plays a Rousing Mozart

You wouldn’t think that the man who conflated the Ice Age with the height of the Egyptian civilization (and who really did a number on the American Revolution) would be concerned with history in his films, but I suppose that people can always surprise you. In an exclusive interview with Coming Soon, Roland Emmerich discusses his Shakespeare project, which has actually existed as an idea for eight years. According to Emmerich:

It’s about how it came to be that William Shakespeare was not the author of his plays. It’s not Marlowe, it’s De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. It’s kind of like a political thriller. It’s about who will succeed Elizabeth and the cause of that thriller, the Essex Rebellion, we take on and we learn how the plays were written by somebody else.

It sounds odd, but then again he claims that it’s very well researched. Take it from the man who knows exactly how an alien laser beam will blow up the White House.

Emmerich also discusses his plans for the Foundation stories by Isaac Asimov. Fans may have been hoping that he’d adapt the unusual narrative straight out of the book, but I suppose that it should be expected that he’d make a concession by consolidating all of the characters together. However, I’ll give Emmerich credit where it’s due: he is an interesting director who could do far better work if he actually had fidelity to a cohesive, organic, and realistic film. At the least, both projects should force him in that direction.