Odd movie pairings: Roland Emmerich directs 'Anonymous'

Roland Emmerich is not the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of Shakespeare on film. That’d be Sir Laurence Olivier or Kenneth Branagh, of course. In fact, if one were to make a list of the filmmakers most likely to make a movie about the Bard, Emmerich wouldn’t even rate a mention.

The 55-year-old is best known as the director behind such big-budget, end-of-the-world spectacles as “Independence Day” and “2012,” which are far cries from Shakespearean fare.

Still, Emmerich’s “Anonymous,” which opens tomorrow, is a costume drama set in Elizabethan England that posits the man from Stratford-upon-Avon as but a figurehead for the real author of “Macbeth”: Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans).

In honor of the better-than-expected flick, we look at some of the most unlikely director-subject combinations in recent film history: