Shakespeare or Oxford: that is the question. At least, that is the question plaguing many academics with the Oct. 28 release of director Roland Emmerich’s “Anonymous.” Emmerich’s film, which makes the claim that the Shakespeare works were actually written by the Earl of Oxford, strikes at the heart of a heated debate concerning the authorship of Shakespeare.

The movie’s significance in the academic world caused Emmerich and screenwriter John Orloff to make a selective college tour with viewings of the movie. The University of Michigan – Ann Arbor was one of three universities selected to host the “Anonymous” showing and discussions on Sept. 29.

Matthew Wyneken, a University of Michigan-Flint associate professor of elementary math education, has been interested in the authorship question for many years and attended the Ann Arbor showing of “Anonymous.”

“I think it’s a serious question and for decades and decades we’ve been told its not,” Wyneken said.

The film follows Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, (played by Jamie Campbell Bower and Rhys Ifans) through his childhood and into old age as he struggles against the taboo associated with his writing. Later in life, Oxford asks young playwright Ben Jonson (played by Sebastian Arnesto) to perform and publish the plays under his name. Jonson, who would later become the first poet laureate of England, declines the offer. Instead, an unscrupulous actor named William Shakespeare (played by Rafe Spall) takes up De Vere’s offer. A love affair between DeVere and Elizabeth I (played by mother-daughter team Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson) combined with trouble from the Queen’s evil counselors provide Emmerich with a movie that is in line with his more controversial films.

“This project came to me in the form of a script,” Emmerich said. “I read a script called ‘Soul of the Age’ by John Orloff and it introduced me to the whole subject matter and I remember that at that time I was like kind of deeply moved by it and then I asked myself, so how much of that is true?”

Despite Emmerich’s enthusiasm for the project, he would have to wait many years to begin production as the Oscar award-winning “Shakespeare in Love” prevented him from pursuing another Shakespearian film. While he and Orloff waited for the popularity of “Shakespeare in Love” to pass, they worked on more than 20 drafts of the script.

Orloff’s skepticism concerning Shakespeare’s authorship helped to shape the plotline of “Anonymous.” Orloff first learned of the controversy from a “Frontline” episode in 1988.

“My first reaction was kind of anger because what I realized was that we’re taught a biography of William Shakespeare that’s mostly guess work,” Orloff said. “Most of what we’re taught about the life of William Shakespeare is not factual, it’s just assumption.”

Emmerich admits that the movie may elicit negative reactions, as have some of his past films like “Day after Tomorrow.” Orloff also expects diverse reactions to the film.

“I’ve been at dinner parties where I talk about this movie and they scream at me,” Orloff said. “People get really upset if you mess with their Shakespeare.”

UM-Flint English professor Mary Jo Kietzman is one of those who disagree with the Oxfordian theory. Kietzman said that she tries to avoid the topic in class because it distracts from the text.

According to Kietzman, the humanist grammar school education was enough to allow Shakespeare a sufficient education.

“Though Shakespeare’s family was middle-class, a grammar school education gave him grounding in the Roman classics which are the main classical sources he used, and both Latin and rhetoric were taught by putting on plays in school,” Kietzman said in an email.

Kietzman also has a forthcoming article saying that Shakespeare’s status as actor helped him to write his “actor-friendly” scripts.

“What I mean is that he knew how to write scripts that contained all the information about character, relationship, and even stage blocking that the actors would need to make it possible to put these shows on stage with the incredibly short rehearsal time,” Kietzman said. “Would an aristocrat know intimately what actors needed?”

Orloff believes that the film will reshape the way we read the texts in question.

“If they were written by Edward De Vere, they have context, they have reason, they have meaning, they have motivation and I think it’s a more enriching experience,” Orloff said.

Emmerich hopes the film reignites interest in the Shakespearian texts.

“I think it kind of makes Shakespeare, which got a little dusty, more interesting,” Emmerich said.

Beth can be reached at eleblanc@umflint.edu.