Nearly three decades before Hamnet‘s depiction of William Shakespeare‘s personal life sparked awards buzz, Oscar voters swooned over a film that showed the Bard as having some swagger. Shakespeare in Love was set up at Universal in the early 1990s; the studio hired Edward Zwick to direct Marc Norman’s script about the playwright’s fictionalized love affair that led him to pen Romeo and Juliet. Zwick enlisted Tom Stoppard for a rewrite, and Universal accepted the scribe’s $1 million salary request once Julia Roberts was attached to star as Viola. The film had not yet found its Shakespeare when production began in 1991; Daniel Day-Lewis was Roberts’ top choice but passed. Roberts ultimately exited the project, leading Universal to shut down production despite sunk costs of $6 million. After Zwick’s success with 1994’s Legends of the Fall, Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein aimed to revive Shakespeare in Love. Weinstein acquired the rights but then hired John Madden to direct, with Zwick retaining a producer credit. Kate Winslet was among those considered for Viola before Gwyneth Paltrow got …