“Shakespeare in Love” producer Edward Zwick let readers in on a few big secrets about the making of the Oscar-winning 1998 film.
The period romance starred Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes and won seven Academy Awards, including best picture. But in the project’s nascent days, it didn’t involve Paltrow at all but instead “Pretty Woman” star Julia Roberts, whom Zwick suggests sent the early production off the rails.
In the first chapter of his upcoming memoir, published Saturday in Air Mail, Zwick marked the 25th anniversary of the film with juicy details about its development. His contributions, he said, had long been overlooked and rarely publicly acknowledged — even on the night he won an Academy Award and was edged out of his acceptance speech by studio mogul Harvey Weinstein.
