Roland Emmerich knows what you think of him. "The Master of Disaster," famous for directing films such as '2012' and Independence Day,' gleefully recalled his reputation during an interview about the new Shakespeare conspiracy film 'Anonymous' at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday. There are no explosions in 'Anonymous' and the world isn't on the brink of disaster -- is the director worried audiences won't take a "Roland Emmerich Shakespeare film" seriously? "There are a lot of things against this movie," Emmerich admits -- his reputation being one of them. So, why didn't Emmerich take a cue from his own movie and release it anonymously? As it turns out, that was his initial plan.
"I wanted to," he told me in Toronto over the weekend. "But you could not do that. The studio only gave me the money because they could sell it under my name. But it's a little bit like that, too, because people are just stunned that it is from me. They're always [asking], 'How difficult is it to make the movies that I normally do? Do you think you could be brain damaged doing these movies?' It's just like all public perception. It's the same thing that happens to Michael Bay and people like that. Everybody thinks we're kind of idiots."
Check back to Moviefone soon for more from Emmerich about 'Anonymous'; the film hits theaters on Oct. 28.
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