Anyone familiar with director Roland Emmerich's body of work should be able to pick up on a few common threads, namely explosions, disasters, big speeches and general epicness. After directing such large-scale thrillers like "The Day After Tomorrow," "Godzilla" and "2012," Emmerich's decision to direct a film about Shakespeare as he does in "Anonymous" is a surprising choice.
Yes, Bill Pullman's "Our Independence Day" soliloquy before the dog fight against the invading aliens could be described as Shakespearan, but we're still missing the connection between the Bard and the man who froze all of New York City and populated it with ravenous wolves. There must be something we're missing, right?
To make the connection between Roland Emmerich films and William Shakespeare a little clearer, we here at MTV News have combined the two to help the transition to "Anonymous" easier to swallow. With some help from the Prithee Players, we have recreated some of the most memorable moments from Emmerich's film and given them a Shakespearean makeover. Watch scenes from "Universal Soldier," "Stargate," "The Day After Tomorrow" and "ID4" with some thee's and thou's added for extra class and refinement. Maybe now we can see that the Shakespearean influence has been there all along!
I report the following with a mixture of sadness and pleasure. After years of rumors and suspect IMDB updates, Jean-Claude Van Damme, hot off an honest to goodness fine piece of acting in "JCVD" (check it out if you want to watch the "Bloodsport" star cry and I mean a lot) just told me he's in for the third "Universal Soldier" movie. Er, or is that DVD?
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