The big Hollywood buzz is the New York Times piece today ("Christopher Marlowe Stages a Comeback") where we learn that Johnny Depp might play Christopher Marlowe in a Marlowe-as-Shakespeare movie. The movie and the press that it will generate will send shockwaves through the Shakespeare world. Finally, Marlowe getting the attention he deserves! http://www.marlowe-shakespeare.blogspot.com

Good flick . . .but Jodie has cranked out some really bad cliches lately . . .

The greatest story never told by Hollywood.

Christopher Marlowe, genius playwright and shadowy spy, fakes his death to avoid being sent to the gallows. Accused of atheism and heresy, he goes underground, protected by his handlers in Queen Elizabeth's government. Soon after, works attributed to Shakespeare (who prior had no record as a writer!) begin appearing. Written by whom? Christopher Marlowe - the greatest Elizabethan playwright when he was "alive." Marlowe, with Shakespeare as the willing entrepeneurial frontman!

http://www.marlowe-shakespeare.blogspot.com

And from Emmy-winning filmmaker Mike Rubbo, this clip from his critically acclaimed PBS/Frontline documentary on the theory above, Much Ado About Something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsJTbWF1-lg

http://marlowe-shakespeare.blogspot.com/2008/12/o...

Not that I could change your mind . . . :)

Read the Shakespeare bios.

As Mark Twain writes, we only have two pages of facts on Shakespeare. So these bios about him are all speculation. Imagining that Shakespeare, for example, stayed up late reading Scottish history in preparing for Macbeth, for example.

Interesting. But the Marlowe clues in Shakespeare plays are overwhelming! And the similarities in styles!

http://marlowe-shakespeare.blogspot.com/2008/12/m...

Marlowe was a commoner. A cobbler's son . . . btw.

The facts work against Shakespeare. Defies logic.

All explained at http://marlowe-shakespeare.blogspot.com

And this YouTube clip -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsJTbWF1-lg

Marlowe, although a cobbler's son, was educated at Cambridge - got an MA (btw, they wanted to deny him an MA due to excessive absences, but Elizabeth's inner circle intervened, since Marlowe was part of Her Majesty's Secret Service). He was a very good Latin translator early on. Theology major. The guy was VERY bright. And he pioneered blank verse in the plays written under his (Marlowe's) name. This is also a major sticking point with me. The Shakespeare plays are largely written in blank verse!

And he could crank out plays quickly. Look at how quickly he wrote the sequel to his smash hit Tamburlaine!

DeVere's dates work against him . . . and whatever he wrote under his own name was marginal.

What Marlowe wrote when he was "alive" was VERY successful and highly regarded.

http://www.marlowe-shakespeare.blogspot.com

doubtaboutwill.org

Lot of good stuff there, too.

Mike Rubbo's doc. film Much Ado About Something, with a clip available on YouTube, really shows how interesting Marlowe's story is.

yep . . .his background showed SCANT evidence he was a writer. Names on plays mean nothing - he was a front, let's face it. Btw, most of the 36 plays never had his name on them, originally!