Anonymous
In Elizabethan England, political intrigue abounds as the Tudors and the Cecils battle it out over the succession of Queen Elizabeth I (Joely Richardson/Vanessa Redgrave), and the Essex Rebellion mobilises against her. Enter the dashing and wildly talented Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (Jamie Campbell Bower/Rhys Ifans), who not only fathers an illegitimate son in a clandestine incestuous relationship with Queen Elizabeth, but is also the secret author of the plays labeled with the name of William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall).

Shakespeare in Love
Young Will Shakespeare is the up-and-coming playwright of the time but has been disastrously struck by the bane of the writer's life - writer's block. His comedy "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter" is not going anywhere and the playhouse is under threat of closure. What Will needs is a muse - and she appears in the form of the beautiful (and betrothed) Lady Viola. The path of true love doesn't run smooth for Will, however - Viola is engaged to be married to the insufferable Lord Wessex at the command of Queen Elizabeth. The joys and tragedy of his own life soon find their way onto the page in a moving, witty and spellbinding tale.

Roland Emmerich directs this political thriller based around the notion that William Shakespeare was not in fact the author of the canon of plays attributed to him. In Elizabethan England, political intrigue abounds as the Tudors and the Cecils battle it out over the succession of Queen Elizabeth I (Joely Richardson/Vanessa Redgrave), and the Essex Rebellion mobilises against her. Enter the dashing and wildly talented Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (Jamie Campbell Bower/Rhys Ifans), who not only fathers an illegitimate son in a clandestine incestuous relationship with Queen Elizabeth, but is also the secret author of the plays labeled with the name of William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall).