Audiences are in for another close encounter at the big screen in Steven Spielberg’s newest science fiction film, Disclosure Day. Created and directed by Spielberg, the screenplay is by his longtime collaborator David Koepp. Together they have developed the scripts for blockbuster classics, which includes the first two Jurassic Park films, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Disclosure Day starts Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo.
Watch the trailer for Disclosure Day
In 1977, Spielberg created Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a sci-fi masterpiece that quickly became a pop-culture mainstay. With Disclosure Day, the director aims to create another film that might answer some questions raised by his seminal box-office hit. “During Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I would say to myself: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of this turned out to be true?’” Spielberg says. ”Almost 50 years later, I’m now thinking: ‘Wouldn’t be it be wonderful for us to actually know that all of this is true?’
In Disclosure Day, Spielberg and Koepp aim to pose questions about human existence, and the cost of mysteries kept from the population of Earth. The film is borne from Spielberg’s endless fascination with the great unknowns of the cosmos, going as far back as his childhood. “I remember one summer, my dad took me out to look at the annual Perseid meteor shower when we were living in New Jersey,” Spielberg shares. “Overnight, I developed a real curiosity about what is happening up there in the stars, on some planet orbiting in any number of countless solar systems, and if one of them might have a civilization that was advanced enough to travel the universe.”
Disclosure Day may not be a direct sequel to Close Encounters, but they explore similar themes regarding life outside of our planet, and how forces governing the planet might be controlling the narrative around it. From a 1978 interview from Spielberg post-Close Encounters, he says, “I really found my faith when I heard that the government was opposed to the film. If NASA took the time to write me a 20-page letter, then I knew there must be something happening.”
For him, the film is also reflective of the current issues persisting in today’s world. “Disclosure Day is a movie about misinformation and the challenge of finding truth in a culture when powerful people have tools to blur the lines of fact and fiction, of what is real and unreal, in service of protecting and advancing their agendas,” Spielberg says. “It’s a movie that also asks questions about what we do with truth that expands our understanding of the universe in a way that challenges the beliefs that give us meaning, including religion. The X-Files taught us that the truth is out there, but what happens when we find it? Can we accept it? Do we reject it? Will it bring us together or divide us further? Ultimately, though, I think Disclosure Day is a story about empathy as an extraordinary resource, and how it needs to be shared globally, with the entire world, not hoarded for self-interest or reserved for those closest to us.”
The truth will be revealed as Disclosure Day arrives in Philippine cinemas on June 10. Check out Universal Pictures PH (FB), UniversalPicturesPH (IG), and UniversalPicsPH (TikTok) for the latest news and updates.
