Emmerich Directs Literary Drama

Roland Emmerich has committed to direct an intense 16th Century drama, exploring a theory about the true authorship of Shakespeare's works. No, no, it's all right, you're not dreaming, nor has that suspicious guy by the copier slipped ketamine in your coffee again. Ladies and gentlemen Roland Emmerich is back, and this time... he's serious. After churning out crowd-pleasing, effects-laden event movies like Godzilla, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, the director has come plummeting back to Earth for The Soul of the Age. Based on a script by John Orloff that was shelved after Shakespeare in Love went into production, the film tells the tale of Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford and an acclaimed poet and playwright. While De Vere was respected for his own work, recent literary conspiracy theorists (yes, such troubling people do exist) have postulated that it was he, rather than Shakespeare, who truly penned the works for which The Bard is famous. It may be no more far-fetched than The Day After Tomorrow's global apocalypse, but such mundane matters are hardly the bricks and mortar upon which Emmerich has built his career. Not that we're complaining or anything, it's just that you get used to the world working a certain way. Keep an eye out for news that Mike Leigh has signed up to tackle Van Helsing 2 - a tale of our hero's early years caring for his alcoholic mother while growing up on a council estate in eastern Romania.