Steven Spielberg’s filmography is often hailed as one of the most iconic collections of movies to exist. With his newest upcoming film ‘Disclosure Day,’ Spielberg is once again posing the question of “are we really alone in the universe” to his audience. Beyond just that, it’s meant to be “reflective of the world as it is evolving and discoveries that are being made as we speak.”
Steven Spielberg has been creating a multitude of cinematic worlds for over 50 years now. As a director, Spielberg has a way of inviting the audience to go on wild adventures, while being introspective about the world around them and their own lives.
This summer, the 79-year-old famed Hollywood figure is set to release his next blockbuster “Disclosure Day.” The movie will be released on June 11th, and joins a slew of other Spielberg classics that asks one of the biggest questions about our universe: are we alone?
Spielberg has long given us his visions of extraterrestrial life in his films. From “ET,” to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” he’s shaped the way in which Hollywood interprets life beyond planet Earth. “Close Encounters” itself was meant to take place in the same universe as “ET,” and this new film will also follow suit.
The director said that while his 1977 film was more “speculative,” “Disclosure Day” is the “real deal.”
In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Spielberg said that he is trying to revive and reconsider the alien wonder that’s often taken over his mind.
“Ive been a believer since I made ‘Close Encounters’ 50 years ago, but I would always say: Until I’ve seen a UAP or a UFO with my own eyes, I’m not going to categorically state that life from out there has come here.
But I’ve changed that. I’m now willing to change my mind because of the circumstantial evidence which is overwhelming,” he said.
“It’s my first film that will be considered science fiction that I do not consider to be science fiction. It’s much more reflective of the world as it is evolving and discoveries that are being made as we speak.”
“Disclosure Day” stars Josh O’Connor as a cybersecurity whistleblower with government evidence that has been suppressed. The evidence chronicles a history of alien encounters and guides him in his escape from a corporate executive, played by Colin Firth.
Firth’s character is trying to keep all the evidence locked away, while O’Connor’s character is being guided by the disclosure movement’s leader played by Colman Domingo. Simultaneously, a meteorologist named Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is having a mysterious epiphany.
Spielberg explained that when the idea for this movie first came to him, he called screenwriter David Koepp, who he’s collaborated with multiple times. Koepp wrote “Jurassic Park” and “War of the Worlds,” so he’s no stranger to helping bring Spielberg’s universes to life.
Koepp said that when Spielberg first called him and asked him to help him with this movie, he “said ‘sure, what’s it about?’ And he said ‘Oh you know, aliens again, but different this time.’”
Spielberg’s last film came out in 2022. “The Fabelmans” was created based on his own childhood, marking his first autobiographical movie. The movie was a dramatization of his parent’s divorce and his origins as a filmmaker. After finishing that, he was unsure about what his next steps would be.
“It was the hardest question I ever had to ask myself because there was such completion in resolving so many personal issues that I had never aired in public before ‘The Fabelmans,’” Spielberg said to AP.
“I didn’t care whether people thought ‘The Fabelmans’ was just a tale, a yarn, or if they cared that it was all true. I didn’t care about that. It was something I did for myself. I always used to say it was $40 million of therapy that I didn’t have to pay for. Universal did,” he said.
The idea of “Disclosure Day” was initially sparked by the 2023 House Subcommittee on National Security nearing on UAPs: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. At the time, whistleblower and former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch testified that the government concealed a program investigating UAPs.
The Pentagon initially denied these reports, but at the same time President Donald Trump stated that the Pentagon is preparing to release some “very interesting” UFO files.
Those testimonials were what fueled Spielberg’s ideas that became the basis of “Disclosure Day.” He started by producing a 50-page treatment and began the writing process with Koepp who would text him notes. Koepp said he texted him “more notes than I’ve ever sent to anyone in my life.”
“There was a period in there where I believe he re-read the script every single day for a year,” Koepp says.
“We’d be in different time zones and I would wake up to 30 or 35 texts from his most current reading of the script. When the leader of the project has that level of commitment, it tends to bring along everyone. You up your game.”
Spielberg said that he’s looking forward to audiences seeing “Disclosure Day,” and that real movie-goers are what keeps him hopeful about the future of Hollywood.
“The audience gives me faith in the movies.”
Spielberg reflected on how he’s long-considered his filmography to be split in two. He has his ethereal worlds in movies like “E.T.,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “War of the Worlds,” and “Jaws,” and then his darker, more serious material, which was partially inspired after he watched 1985’s “The Color Purple,” with movies like “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.”
AP writes that “Disclosure Day” a “kind of bridge between both modes of Spielberg” with thrilling action-filled fantastical moments and special effects as well as a humbling message of reality and wonder that we’ve experienced in recent history.
“I think every movie should have a great emphasis on empathy because empathy sometimes feels like it’s in short supply,” Spielberg says.
“We have it, sometimes we can’t use it. Sometimes it’s not allowed to be used if you want to stay aligned with your friends and your belief systems. But I think empathy is there for all of us.”
Spielberg is optimistic that the audiences of today will continue to keep movie theaters running in a post-Covid streaming world.
“Even though the numbers are still not pre-Covid level numbers for any films being released now, it’s more robust than it had been for many years. The audience gives me the belief that people still want to congregate in a dark space in the company of strangers to share an experience of a film made by storytellers. And that gives me faith to continue making films.”
While Spielberg is turning 80 at the end of this year, he never stops to think about how many movies he may or may not have left in his career.
“I never think about how many more I have. I’m just hopeful that I will be inspired when something comes along, as I was with ‘Disclosure Day,’ as I was with ‘Fabelmans,’ as I was with ‘West Side Story.’”
In fact, Spielberg is already thinking about his next project, stating that he’s always been wanting to make a Western due to a pure love for the genre.
“I always feel like the ‘Raiders’ adventure movies are like Westerns. Whenever Harrison (Ford) was on a horse, it made me wistful for wanting to direct a full Western, a real Western.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
