In an interview titled "Roland Emmerich talks Shakespeare . . ." with Jeremey Gingrich published this month at Flix 66, Roland Emmerich said attacks by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and by Contested Will author James Shapiro against his Shakespeare authorship film, Anonymous , hurt the film's attendance. According to Gingrich, Emmerich said: It hurt. Because it made smart people not want to see the film. These guys are famous people. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is very powerful in England and Jim Shapiro is kind of your typical New York intellectual, and they were very smart how they handled this film in discrediting the film. And when you look at the reviews, you'll notice most were reviewing the [authorship] theory and not the film. The film opened to disappointing box office last fall, and was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on DVD, Blu-Ray, and iTunes this week. Despite impressive CGI and extraordinary performances by Vanessa Redgrave...
a Michigan group dedicated to the study of the works of William Shakespeare with particular interest in the authorship question