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The Untold Story of "Shakespeare in Love," from Director Edward Zwick - Arts Intel

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High art. Romantic intrigue. Monstrous villainy. The inside story of the original, star-studded—and star-crossed—production of Shakespeare in Love is the stuff of, well, Shakespeare O ne day while escaping the madness of the Thirtysomething production offices I met a writer whose office was down the hall. We began talking stories, as writers do, and he pitched an idea about young William Shakespeare and the writing of Romeo and Juliet. Marc Norman’s clever conceit was to imagine the Elizabethan theater as the Hollywood of its day, with young Will as just another struggling writer-director having to cater to the public’s appetite for innocuous, pleasing fare, deal with treacherous producers, mollify temperamental actors, struggle with writer’s block, and survive the plague. In other words, the usual. Universal paid us to develop a script, and Marc’s first draft did a good job of shaping the overall concept—Shakespeare’s love affair with a young actress becomes the inspiration for the pl

“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; / They kill us for their sport.” Tales of Hollywood March 4, 2023 Reading Time: 24 minutes O ne day while escaping the madness of the Thirtysomething production offices I met a writer whose office was down the hall. We began talking stories, as writers do, and he pitched an idea about young William Shakespeare and the writing of Romeo and Juliet . Marc Norman’s clever conceit was to imagine the Elizabethan theater as the Hollywood of its day, with young Will as just another struggling writer-director having to cater to the public’s appetite for inno

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