The German-born film director of "Independence Day" is known as the "master of disaster," but Roland Emmerich has also addressed gay rights in "Stonewall."
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Roland Emmerich returns with 'Moonfall'
Known for films bursting with visual effects, the master of the disaster genre now has the moon thrown out of its orbit, wreaking havoc on earth.
Image: Lionsgate/ZUMA Press/imago images
When the moon goes rogue
"We're saving the moon and with it the earth," says astronaut Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) in the trailer for "Moonfall." On their space trip, Harper and his two comrades-in-arms — former astronaut Jo Fowler (Halle Berry) and conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley) — realize how pressed for time they are. More so since the moon is not what people have always thought it to be.
Image: Lionsgate/ZUMA Press/imago images
'Master of Disaster'
With "Moonfall," Emmerich, who was born in Stuttgart on November 10, 1955, once again lives up to his nickname, coined for his penchant for disaster scenarios. On Emmerich's 65th birthday in 2020, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid tribute to him, saying "You have thrilled an audience of millions and set the standard for the use of special effects."
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A knack for end-of-time films
The Swabian-born director came to the attention of Hollywood early on, where blockbusters such as "Independence Day," "The Day After Tomorrow" and "The Patriot" made him world famous. Emmerich actually wanted to become a production designer, but after seeing "Star Wars" in theaters, he switched to directing.
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Homemade in Swabia
Emmerich's career began in the Swabian town of Maichingen, where he shot his first directorial feature, "The Noah's Ark Principle," in a disused washing machine factory. In the science-fiction thriller, two astronauts are abused by the US military for a secret war mission. With each subsequent film, Emmerich became an expert in action and disaster films in the years that followed.
Image: Gunnar Köhne
Breakthrough in the dream factory
After several German productions, Emmerich came to the attention of film critics as a shrewd emulator of Hollywood style — and would finally crash into Hollywood himself in 1992 with "Universal Soldier," starring Jean-Claude Van Damme at the peak of his powers. The wowing special effects established the director's reputation as the action director to watch.
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Aiming for the stars
Together with his longtime screenwriter Dean Devlin, Emmerich penned the screenplay for the sci-fi film "Stargate" in 1994, which itself led to a number of spin-offs. Three TV series and an animated adaptation later, the "Stargate" saga continues to dazzle, with further related projects being developed.
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Act of independence
It took a patriotic disaster movie for Emmerich to truly conquer the collective heart and soul of America. "Independence Day," starring Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman — three of the then-most popular actors in the country — had it all, with alien invasions and epic battles of civilizations. The film was naturally an epic success as well, and a sequel followed in 2016.
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Monster reloaded
There are few cult classics quite like the Japanese epic "Godzilla." And who else to bring the film into the future than Emmerich, who transposed the cantankerous lizard to New York…with oodles of special effects to boot. The film grossed nearly $380 million worldwide (€340 million) and, while widely panned by critics, certified Emmerich as the go-to guy for special-effects blockbusters.
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Re-making history
At the dawn of the new millennium, Emmerich for the first time turned his attention to history: the Revolutionary War. In "The Patriot" Mel Gibson plays a widowed plantation owner in South Carolina forced to defend his children against the British army, who goes on to become one of the leading resistance fighters and heroes. The patriotic classic garnered three Oscar nominations.
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Tales tall and true
In "The Day after Tomorrow" Emmerich painted a bleak picture of the future: a world devastated by melting polar icecaps, a freezing Atlantic and the descent of the Earth into a super ice age. Thanks to its visual and technical prowess and its pertinent themes, the 2004 film won the hearts of the critics as well as the fans.
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Set in stone
Emmerich had been brewing on a prehistoric epic since the late 1990s, but it was only after "The Day after Tomorrow" that he dared to take on his 2008 Stone Age epic "10,000 BC." In the film, a young warrior sets out to free his beloved from the clutches of slave traders. The re-imagined flora and fauna add to this film's fascination and success.
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The big crash
At the peak of his fame, Emmerich released "White House Down" in 2013 — a film that proved to be one of his greatest flops, despite its stellar cast. In the thriller, a cop (Channing Tatum) saves the US president (Jamie Foxx) from the hands of blackmailers and prevents the imminent threat of World War III. The film never recouped the immense cost of production totaling $150 million.
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A new beginning
With "Stonewall" in 2015, Emmerich found himself in unfamiliar territory — a film about the Stonewall Riots in New York, which kicked off the gay rights movement. The historic battle is remembered each year in Germany with the Christopher Street Day parade.
In 2019, Emmerich released "Midway," which portrays a decisive naval battle in the Pacific during World War II, known as the Battle of Midway. The special effects were once again all there, but critics felt the story wasn't quite ready for the win.
Retirement age in Germany is 65, but there are no signs that German-born film director Roland Emmerich will be calling the quits any time soon.
Emmerich has long become a household name for action-driven works such as Independence Day (1996), Godzilla (1998) and The Day after Tomorrow (2004), and continues to be a driving force behind cutting-edge special effects in the film industry.
More science fiction than science
Born in the southern German city of Stuttgart in 1955, Emmerich attended the University of Television and Film Munich, launching into his signature genre of science fiction straight upon graduation.
After completing a number of productions in Germany, Emmerich directed his first US action film in 1992: Universal Soldier, featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren.
In 1994, Stargate cemented the German director's reputation in Hollywood, setting the stage for the 1996 movie which probably remains his most famous: Independence Day. The storyline spans an ambitious arc in which alien spaceships descend on Earth to annihilate all humans in a bid to take over the planet's natural resources, before they move on to another galactic civilization to rinse and repeat the same wave of destruction. This takes place, of course, on the Fourth of July, as luck would have it.
The movie is, however, as much a commentary on the human condition with its seemingly insatiable desire to exploit the Earth as it is a trope about good versus evil. In the end, humanity prevails — even though the kind of (pseudo-)science explained in the film would certainly condemn mankind to its own doom, if it were actually applied in the real world.
In hindsight, many of the special effects in Independence Day and Stargate appear almost whimsical from today's perspective. But Roland Emmerich tends to treat such details as mere afterthoughts at the time of production. His mission is to thrill audiences, and there is no doubt that he succeeds in doing so, always using the latest technology available to the industry.
Emmerich improves on the high standards he sets for himself with each production. In 2004, he brought the disaster film genre to a new level with The Day After Tomorrow, which casts the planet under the spell of a new Ice Age emerging overnight.
Five years later, he highlighted the end-of-times prophecy of the Mayan Calendar in 2012, chasing his protagonists from one natural disaster to the next.
Looking at the effects of climate change is, however, not just an on-screen passion of the German director; he makes sure that his productions are carbon-neutral — while remaining cost-effective.
A sensitive perspective on social issues
But it's not all doom and gloom with Roland Emmerich. In fact, the director has also been trying to move away from his moniker, "the master of disaster." Even in the flattest of storylines, Emmerich attempts to inject some social commentary, for example by featuring interracial couples in his narratives or casting people of color in leading roles — giving sleepless nights to Hollywood executives who love to apply tried-and-tested formulas to produce box office blockbusters.
In 2015, Emmerich directed a film about the beginnings of the Gay Rights movement on Christopher Street in New York in the late 1960s: the openly gay director, who married his partner Omar de Soto in 2017, said that Stonewall was a project that was near and dear to his heart. Unfortunately, it failed at the box office.
In 2019, Emmerich opted for another historical project, setting his eyes on the Pacific Theater of World War II with Midway. The action-filled war drama focuses on the decisive Battle of Midway that opposed the United States and Japan in 1942.
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Under the moon
But Roland Emmerich can't seem to entirely depart from science fiction after all: His next film, Moonfall, is based on the premise that the moon stops rotating around the Earth and begins to tumble toward the planet. Actors Donald Sutherland, Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson and Stanley Tucci have all signed on to the production.
How will his protagonists solve this existential problem? Who will die in due course? And what love stories find their happy ending against this background?
We will have to wait until at least 2022 to find out how Emmerich's latest work pans out. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the launch date of the production is yet to be determined, but with a budget of $130 million (€110 million), fans can be certain that there will be no skimping on special effects.
For today, however, there are no major floods, explosives or fires planned for Roland Emmerich's birthday — only 65 candles to blow out.