‘Anonymous’ – Trailer, Photos and Cast

Joely Richardson and Jamie Campbell Bower in Anonymous
Joely Richardson and Jamie Campbell Bower in ‘Anonymous’ (Photo © Columbia Pictures)

Director Roland Emmerich (2012) takes a break from big epic action films with Anonymous. The PG-13-rated drama is set to open in theaters on October 28, 2011.

Rhys Ifans star as Earl of Oxford, Jamie Campbell Bower is Young Earl of Oxford, Vanessa Redgrave is Queen Elizabeth I, Joely Richardson is Young Queen Elizabeth I, Rafe Spall plays William Shakespeare, David Thewlis is William Cecil, and Xavier Samuel is Earl of Southampton. Sebastian Armesto stars as Ben Johnson, Edward Hogg is Robert Cecil, Sebastian Reid is Earl of Essex, Paolo De Vita is Francesco, Trystan Gravelle is Christopher Marlowe, Robert Emms is Thomas Dekker, and Tony Way is Thomas Nashe. Derek Jacobi narrates the prologue.

Official Synopsis: Set in the political snake-pit of Elizabethan England, Anonymous speculates on an issue that has for centuries intrigued academics and brilliant minds ranging from Mark Twain and Charles Dickens to Henry James and Sigmund Freud, namely: who was the author of the plays credited to William Shakespeare? Experts have debated, books have been written, and scholars have devoted their lives to protecting or debunking theories surrounding the authorship of the most renowned works in English literature.

Anonymous poses one possible answer, focusing on a time when cloak-and-dagger political intrigue, illicit romances in the Royal Court, and the schemes of greedy nobles hungry for the power of the throne were exposed in the most unlikely of places: the London stage.