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Josh Spiegel: Just what we all needed: Roland Emmerich, purveyor of such schlock as 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow, to shake up the stories of William Shakespeare (or the mystery writer behind these tales!!!) with explosions and hot sex scenes. It'll be just like Spartacus or Camelot or The Tudors! In all sincerity, I am shocked that a Shakespearean performer like Derek Jacobi is involved in this project, if only because it seems to be so bored with the actual history. I could be wrong - and I hope I am, though probably in vain - but this just seems like another movie I can't wait to avoid.

Jim Van Nest: First off, I'm a little upset that a major American city was not destroyed to make that trailer. Second, um...why? The music and the sound cues are all there, as if this is an epic film about mysteries we can't possibly understand. But when you boil it all down, the message is "William Shakespeare didn't write his own material??" Really, that's it? For all the negatives that came along with The DaVinci Code...at least its story line completely destroyed religion as we know it. Anonymous would just change a bunch of Literature course syllabuses.

Edwin Davies: This looks like an Asylum rip-off of The DaVinci Code without the timeliness that those usually display by being released within a few months of the original. Waiting five years is not the way to capitalise on a trend. Aside from the obvious "erm, what?" factor that comes from any non-disaster film from Roland Emmerich, there really isn't anything in this trailer that makes me think that I need to see this film. The subject matter is something for English Literature professors to argue over, so by trying to turn it into a potential blockbuster they could demean the interesting idea behind it. I'm not saying that Roland Emmerich lacks the subtlety and nuance to make an intelligent, thought-provoking film that also works as a piece of mass entertainment but then again I am.

Kim Hollis: It looks like it wants to be a Showtime mini-series. The English major in me finds the premise mildly intriguing, but knowing Roland Emmerich directed makes me think, oh, never mind. I still haven't forgiven him for the awfulness that was 2012. I do like David Thewlis a whole heck of a lot, though, as well as Jacobi and Rhys Ifans. I guess I'll hold judgment for later. If it happens to get some decent reviews, maybe I'll give it a shot.

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