It’s the greatest literary mystery of all time; who wrote the works of William Shakespeare? Although the official story of a Stratford merchant writing for the London box office has held sway for centuries, questions over the authorship of the plays and poems have persisted. Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles are among the many famous figures who doubt that a grain-dealer from Stratford-Upon-Avon was England’s “Star of Poets”. From Executive Producer ROLAND EMMERICH, DEREK JACOBI leads an impressive cast featuring OSCAR® WINNER VANESSA REDGRAVE and TONY® WINNER MARK RYLANCE on a quest to uncover the truth behind the world’s most elusive author and discovers a forgotten nobleman whose story could rewrite history. |
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SHAKESPEARE'S UNORTHODOX BIOGRAPHY


CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY







Executive Producer
Roland Emmerich began his career in his native Germany. He went on to study film at the film school in Munich, Germany where his student film THE NOAH’S ARK PRINCIPLE went on to open the 1984 Berlin Film Festival.
Roland Emmerich is one the world’s most talented and sought-after directors to date. His recent controversial feature ANONYMOUS explored the theory that William Shakespeare’s plays were written by Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. The stellar cast included Vanessa Redgrave, Rhys Ifans and Joley Richardson.
In 2010 Roland directed the box office hit 2012, an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an ends to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors. This major blockbuster starred John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton.
As well as directing, Roland has also produced some of our most popular ‘disaster‘ movies including 10,000BC , a fantasy drama which tells the story of the world’s first hero, who brings down an evil empire to save his love. In 2004 he produced THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal, which follows a climatologist’s struggle to figure out a way to save the world from global warming.
In 2000, Roland directed THE PATRIOT based on the American Revolution. The film starred Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger and Joely Richardson. 1994 saw Roland direct the cult hit UNIVERSAL SOLDIER , which was followed by STARGATE the same year. 1996 and 1998 saw two of the most popular action films that the world had ever seen; in 1996 Roland directed INDEPENDENCE DAY a film that grossed over $800,000 worldwide. INDEPENDENCE DAY secured Roland the title of one of Hollywood’s top film directors. In quick succession, Roland released another Hollywood blockbuster GODZILLA , which he directed and produced.
Roland’s other directorial film credits include his first American film UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, STARGATE and TRADE.
In addition, to his work in film and television, Roland has also made considerable contributions to many charities, including, but not limited to the Gay and Lesbian Education Network (GLSEN), the Outfest Film Festival Los Angeles, the Cambodian Children’s Fund, the Trevor Project, Global Green, and The Gay and Lesbian Center of Los Angeles.
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Laura Wilson Matthias
Director/Producer
Lisa Wilson (left) graduated from the University of Minnesota, where she was first introduced to the Shakespeare Authorship Question. Over the course of several months performing Shakespeare, she began to suspect hidden allusions and double-speak in the plays that would ignite a passion for the truth about the concealed author.
Laura Wilson Matthias (right) attended film school at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and later studied Film Theory and Art History at the University of Minnesota. She, too, would join the quest, engaging her passion for the cinematic arts in the pursuit. In 1997, they co-founded 1604 Productions and set out for Beaufort, SC to interview author and Oxfordian pioneer, Charlton Ogburn. Twelve hours of archival footage was recorded in what was to be his last interview. In his honor, they’ve been documenting the Shakespeare Authorship Question ever since.
The next decade would include travel to Canada, Italy, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom, documenting Authorship sites and compiling a multi-media archive of portraits, properties, tombs, monuments, engravings, documents and artifacts. Highlights include reconnaissance in Italy for Richard Roe’s Shakespearean Baedeker, three expeditions to Oak Island and years of privileged access to research on the cutting edge of Shakespeare Authorship studies, including the published and unpublished works of Dorothy Ogburn, Charlton Ogburn Jr., Joy Hancox, Roger Stritmatter, Hank Whittemore, Richard Roe, Charles Beauclerk and Jamianne Reinelt.
Oak Island, Nova Scotia is the site of one of the most expensive and unsolved treasure hunts of all time with intriguing ties to key Elizabethans. 1604 Productions (in association with National Geographic) scouted the island, conducted rare interview with the island’s custodians and recorded Global Satellite Positioning of the alleged Templar and Rosicrucian stone markers. It was on the first expedition that Laura met her husband Paul Matthias, whose company Polaris Imaging was hired to put a camera down the famous Borehole 10X.
In September 2003, 1604 Productions spent ten days in the United Kingdom with independent scholar and author Joy Hancox, and for the next decade, Laura would continue to work closely with Joy and The Byrom Collection of 514 esoteric drawings, including designs for medieval Templar churches, King’s College Chapel - Cambridge, Rosslyn Chapel, Westminster Abbey and several of the original Elizabethan playhouses.
Beginning in 2005, Lisa and Laura provided script consulting services to the motion picture ANONYMOUS (Columbia Pictures) and addressed the international press corp on the film set in Berlin and at Sony Pictures’ press junket in Cancun, Mexico. In 2010, they established First Folio Pictures with Executive Producer Roland Emmerich and Producers Aaron Boyd & Patrick Prentice to bring two decades of authorship investigation to a worldwide audience. LAST WILL. & TESTAMENT is the product of that partnership and represents Lisa and Laura Wilson’s directorial debut. It was made possible by Roland Emmerich’s generosity and genuine commitment to advancing open inquiry into the Shakespeare Question. In April 2012, LAST WILL. & TESTAMENT premiered in the United Kingdom on Sky TV, where it continues to broadcast. Later that month, the Vero Nihil Verius Award of Artistic Excellence was conferred on Lisa and Laura by the Shakespeare Authorship Research Center at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon.
The North American premiere of LAST WILL. & TESTAMENT was Sunday, October 21, 2012 at the Austin Film Festival - two days before its release nationwide On Demand and iTunes - October 23, 2012. Additional foreign distribution and world-wide educational outreach is slated for 2013/14.

Producer
Aaron Boyd currently serves as Director of Development for Centropolis Entertainment, a major motion picture and television production company. Having worked in film production for over 15 years, Mr. Boyd started his career as an assistant in the writer’s room for NBC and FOX on the TV series’ The Visitor and Providence. Having joined the Centropolis family in 2000, he has been instrumental in the development and production of films including The Patriot (Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger), Eight Legged Freaks (Scarlett Johannson), The Day After Tomorrow (Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid), and Trade (Kevin Kline). Mr. Boyd has since developed and Co-Produced the features 10,000BC (Steven Strait, Camilla Belle) and the box office success 2012 (John Cusack, Amanda Peete), on which he also served as the second unit director. Most recently, he produced the award-winning feature documentary film Last Will & Testament, which is currently airing on PBS and being distributed by PBS International.
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Producer
Patrick Prentice is a six-time Emmy award winner who has been writing and producing documentary films for 25 years. He spent five years as Senior Writer for National Geographic Explorer, and another five years as the show’s Senior Producer. His producing credits include the Emmy-award winning TANGO! with actor Robert Duvall; PEARL HARBOR: LEGACY OF ATTACH, (two-hour special, NBC); and PASSION OF THE SAINTS, (four hour series for TLC).
His writing credits include the nine-part PBS series AFRICA; the three-hour PBS series Islam: EMPIRE OF FAITH; and LOST LINERS, a two-hour show for Discovery.
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Editor
Michael Flores has worked on several award-winning films since moving to Los Angeles and attending the University of Southern California, where he received a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema-Television Production. While studying at USC, Michael was awarded several scholarships including the John Frankenheimer Directing Scholarship for merit in directing, the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Entertainment Scholarship, and the Rodolfo Montes Memorial Scholarship. He was also selected to participate as a fellow in Film Independent’s Project: Involve in which he was personally mentored by Jeffrey Blitz: director of the Academy-Award-nominated documentary SPELLBOUND (2002). He edited the Student-Emmy-winning TV pilot, COST OF LIVING and wrote and directed the award-winning short film ESPERANDO (Waiting/Hoping). After graduating from USC, Michael worked as an assistant editor on Tamra Davis’s documentary JEAN-MICHELBASQUIAT: THE RADIANT CHILD (2010), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; on Lisa Leeman’s documentary ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT (2010), which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival; and on Bess Kargman’s documentary FIRST POSITION (2011), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Before working on LAST WILL. & TESTAMENT (2012), Michael edited Nick Broomfield’s documentary SARAH PALIN: YOU BETCHA! (2011), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He has also worked with a number of other directors such as Jeffrey Blitz, Tommy O’Haver, and Renee Tajima-Peña and has worked on a variety of projects including narrative shorts, music videos, and commercials. He is currently working on a narrative feature for director Terri Hanauer.
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Composer
Since Graeme Revell first appeared on the film scoring scene with his chilling score to the Australian thriller DEAD CALM, he has gone on to score more than 100 film and television projects for such high-profile directors as John Woo, Wim Wenders, Robert Rodriguez, Ted Demme and Michael Mann. Born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1955, Revell graduated from the University of Auckland in economics and politics.
A keen observer of both traditional ethnic music and natural sound, Revell started his scoring career after picking up on rhythms in patient vocalizations at an Australian hospital for the mentally ill, where he was working as an orderly. He incorporated recordings of the patients into his music in an early example of the creative use of sound, which would become a hallmark of his later work in motion pictures. His experiments with recordings of insects and industrial machinery led him to create the early industrial band SPK. Revell’s unusual sound convinced directors George Miller and Philip Noyce to employ him on DEAD CALM which won Revell an Australian Oscar for best score.
Revell has since gone on to create highly influential scores in every genre of film. From the deeply lyrical ethnic sound collages of TO THE END OF THE WORLD, through horror/action/comedy classics with frequent collaborator Robert Rodriguez, serious action dramas such as Ed Zwick’s THE SIEGE and THE NEGOTIATOR, cult classics like THE CROW and science fiction such as his extraordinary Dante-inspired score for MARS: RED PLANET, he has contributed a unique voice. Although Revell is as comfortable in big budget Hollywood blockbusters like LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER as in serious dramas such as Ted Demme’s BLOW, David Twohy’s WWII military thriller, BELOW and Michael Gondry’s comical HUMAN NATURE, he devotes time to work on projects of passion. The poignant documentary Darfur NOW and the Shakespeare authorship documentary LAST WILL. & TESTAMENT are examples of this commitment.
Revell also won the award for best music at the Venice Film Festival for his score to Wayne Wang’s film CHINESE BOX. Recently, Revell was honored with BMI’s Richard Kirk Award for Career Achievement.
Revell is also a producer and the CEO of a startup tech company in Silicon Valley.

NARRATOR
Piers graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2009.
His theatre work includes OH! WHAT A LOVELY WAR and MACHINAL at the Tobacco Factory, ‘Octavius’ in ANTHONY & CLEOPATRA at the Nuffield Southampton Theatre, THE MISANTHROPE at The Bristol Old Vic and‘Jimmy Porter’ in a mid-scale tour of LOOK BACK IN ANGER directed by Amanda Knott. Most recently Piers appeared in KING LEAR and THE CHERRY ORCHARD at The Tobacco Factory, who will be taking both productions to The Rose Theatre, Kingston in May.
Piers has extensive radio credits, and received the BBC Carleton Hobbs award in 2009. Credits include THE CHANGELING for BBC Radio 3, COLD, PLANTAGENET, SHIRLEYMANDER, THE DECOY, GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT, THE MAN IN BLACK, WEIRD TALES, TOO MUCH INFORMATION, SHERLOCK HOLMES, TINKER TAYLOR SOLDIER SPY, THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY, SMILEY’S PEOPLE and BEWARE OF PITY for BBC Radio 4. He was also ‘Jude’ in THE ARCHERS.
First Folio Pictures in association with Centropolis Entertainment
Executive Producer
Roland Emmerich
Directed and Produced by
Lisa Wilson
Laura Wilson Matthias
Produced by
Aaron Boyd
Patrick Prentice
Music by
Graeme Revell
Edited by
Merritt Lear
Michael Flores
Director of Photography
Ben Huddleston
Associate Producer
Sara Hutchison
Narrated by
Piers Wehner
Additional Editing
James Felter
Tchavdar Georgiev
Barr Weissman
Assistant Editors
Mark Cope
Sara Parnell Crosby
Marco Urrabazo
Duke Fire
Claire-Estelle Bertrand (UK)
Contributors (In Order of Appearance))
Derek Jacobi
Charles Beauclerk
Roger Stritmatter
Vanessa Redgrave
Jonathan Bate
Stanley Wells
Charlton Ogburn
Michael Delahoyde
Mark Rylance
Diana Price
William Leahy
Daniel Wright
William Boyle
Jon Culverhouse
Gerald J. Meyer
Michael Cecil
Hank Whittemore
Additional Camera
Cristian Pirjol (Germany)
Ray Brislin
Max Zenk (Germany)
Adam Lutz
Aaron Boyd
Martin Finney (U.K)
Gaffer
Adam Lutz
Peter Bloor (UK)
Best Boy Electric
Ray Meehan (UK)
Key Grip
Ben Watson (UK)
Sound Recordist
Kieran Teather (UK)
Brent Rogers
Benjamin Seaward
Jose Araujo
Production Coordinator
Helen Grundy (UK)
Susanna Posnett (UK)
Marco Shepherd
Make Up and Hair
Susan Sittko Schaefer
Karma Ritchie
Liberty Haynes (UK)
Production Assistant
Lindsay Walsh (UK)
Still Photographer
Reiner Bajo
Archival Research and Clearances
Sara Hutchison
Motion Graphics by
Motomo Studio
Carsten Becker, Creative Director
Ramzi Hogan
Luis F. Morales
Benjamin Segall
Francis De La Torre
Joel Colon
Mike Penny
HD Services Provided by
Different by Design & HD Cinema
Graphic Design by
Ludlow Kingsley
Colorist
Brodie Alexander
Online Editor
Matt Radecki
Sound Re-Recording Mixer
Jeremy Grody
Narration Recording
CRANC (UK)
Transcription
Marlene Whitney
Verbalink.com
Consultants
James Norwood
Charles Beauclerk
Hank Whittemore
Ryan Frost
Production Legal Services Provided by
Reder & Feig LLP
Benjamin R. Reder, Esq,
Noor Ahmed
Insurance Provided by
Momentous Insurance Brokerage, Inc.
Media Insurance Brokers Limited (UK)
Accounting Services Provided by
Bemel, Ross & Klein LLP
Travel Services Provided by
Yves Albiez, Abaris Media,
MOVING AND STILL IMAGERY COURTESY OF
Alan Bodell
The Bodleian Libraries
Bridgeman Art Library
The British Library Board
C-Span
Corbis Images
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
The Coventry Diocese
The Folger Shakespeare Library
Getty Images
Al Hirschfeld / Margo Feiden Galleries Ltd.
The Huntington Library
ITN Source
John Rylands University Library
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Library of Congress
The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource, NY
The National Archives of the UK
The National Portrait Gallery, London
Private Collections on loan to The National Portrait Gallery of London
The Royal Shakespeare Company
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Sony
Thought Equity Motion
Harriet Tuckey
WGBH Media Library and Archives
Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-Upon-Avon
“ANONYMOUS” COURTESY OF COLUMBIA PICTURES
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
Cecil Palmer
Coward-McCann, INC.
English Speaking Union, London
EPM Publications Inc.
The Free Press / Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Gotham Books / Penguin Group
Grove Press / Atlantic, Inc
Anchor PRess / Random House, Inc.
Random House Trade Paperbacks
Harper Perennial
Atlas Books / Harper Perennial
Carroll & Graf Publishers
Harper Collins
Harper’s Magazine
History Today
Stratford Parish Register
Meadow Geese Press
The New York Times
Oxford Institute Press
Oxford University Press
Paramount Pictures
Parapress LTD
Show Magazine
Time Magazine
US News and World Report
W. W. Norton & Company
The Producers Wish to Thank:
Kirstin Winkler
Kathryn Donovan
Joe Cassidy
Duke Fire
Noelani Boyd
Jade Gill
Eva von Malotky
Lauren Rae Matthias
Paul K. Matthias
Gardner Monks
Maureen Robinson
Samantha Schwartz
Cast and Crew of ANONYMOUS
Kathy Walden
John Wareham
Steve West
Steve Wilks
Florian Haeger
Martin Kuschan
Nancy Eve Wolf
Dan Wilken
Mikey Hilb
John Barton
Carmen Bier
Charles Boyle
Jack Boyle
Becky Carlson
Joachim W. Dumkow
Larry Franco
James Gaynor
Bjorn Griebel
Andrew Grover
Emmett Herrle
Stephanie Hughes
Helen Kascheike
Sabrina Knoke
Petta Lenz
John Orloff
Jeremiah Richards
Simon Sigg
Earl Showerman
Roman Spacil
Brianna Sylvia-Clarno
Michael Tucker
Richard F. Whalen
Marc Witte
Eric Woite
Paul Edmondson
Special Thanks to:
The Honourable Thomas Lindsay and his wife Demetra Lindsay for exclusive access to Castle Hedingham, Essex.
Michael Cecil, Marquess of Exeter, and Miranda and Orlando Rock for their generous access to the Burghley House Estate.
The National Portrait Gallery, London for access to their unrivaled collection.
The Richard Paul & Jane Roe Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre at Concordia University
Nigel Bailey, House Manager, Wilton House, Wiltshire, U.K.
Cape Fear Community College Film and Video Production Department
Philip Gompertz, House Manager, Burghley House, Stamford, U.K.
Alan Scott, Warden, St. Martin’s Church, Stamford, U.K.
John Shahan, Shakespeare Authorship Coalition
Locations:
Burghley House, Stamford, Lincolnshire, UK
Chapel of St. Stephens, Bures, Suffolk, UK
Concordia University, Portland, OR
Florence Gould Hall, New York, NY
Hatfield House, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK
Hedingham Castle, Essex, UK
Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, CA
Jacksons Lane Theatre, London, UK
King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Middle Temple, London, UK
National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Properties, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
St Augustine's Tower, Hackney, UK
St. Etheldreda Church, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK
St. Martin’s Church, Stamford, Lincolnshire, UK
Studio Babelsberg, Berlin, Germany
Wilton House, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK
The views expressed in the interviews and commentary are solely those of the individuals providing them and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of First Folio Pictures, Inc., Centropolis Entertainment, and their parent, affiliates or subsidiary companies.
Copyright 2012 First Folio Pictures, Inc.
First Folio Pictures, Inc. is the author of this film for the purpose of copyright and other law.
ALL MATERIAL IS PROTECTED BY THE COPYRIGHT LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES AND ALL COUNTRIES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ANY UNAUTHORIZED EXHIBITION, DISTRIBUTION, OR COPYING OF THIS FILM OR ANY PART THEREOF (INCLUDING THE SOUNDTRACK) IS AN INFRINGEMENT OF THE RELEVANT COPYRIGHT AND WILL SUBJECT THE INFRINGER TO SEVERE CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PENALTIES.