Three-time Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg explores the idea of aliens on Earth this summer with Disclosure Day, and, as he revealed at SXSW, he’s a true believer.
Spielberg sat down with host Sean Fennessey for a live episode of The Big Picture, where he discussed his career and provided more insight into his upcoming feature.
Fennessey pointed out in the discussion that Disclosure Day shares some thematic overlap with Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but his latest revolves around the concept of a government cover-up over the existence of alien lifeforms.
Yet Spielberg hadn’t really considered exploring that aspect with Close Encounters. The legendary filmmaker explained why.
“Because one of my consultants on Close Encounters was the former head of Project Blue Book, the Air Force investigation. It was federally funded, the Air Force was investigating these anomalies in this guy, and J. Allen Hynek worked for them until he sent the Air Force on those sightings he had investigated and could not explain when he sensed there was a cover-up of even his efforts to investigate the project going into the private sector. He consulted with me a bit on Close Encounters, and he was very helpful because I introduced him to some people who had close encounters of their own.”
Spielberg himself has yet to experience a close encounter of his own, but would very much like to.
“Now, here’s the thing that I just want to say right now. I’ve made Close Encounters, I’ve made E.T. You’re about to see Disclosure Day very soon. June 12th, it comes out. I’m really into this. Why haven’t I seen anything? How have my friends have seen UFOs, now called UAPs, and I haven’t? I made a movie called Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I haven’t even had a Close Encounter, the first or second kind. Where’s the justice in that?”
“I’m not afraid of any aliens there or here. I have no fears about that whatsoever.”
He continued, “I think our movie does take into consideration, without giving too much away, the social dislocation that could occur theologically if it were announced that there’s evidence. Not only evidence, there’s interaction that has been going on for decades that we are not just now finding out about. It’s going to cause a disruption in a lot of belief systems, but I don’t think it is a lethal disruption at all.”
Don’t expect a slow, meditative film, though. “Disclosure Day moves really fast. It’s fast.”
Spielberg isn’t slowing down anytime soon, either. The SXSW keynote revealed that he’s currently developing a Western, with the aim to shoot in Texas and eschew Western tropes and stereotypes.
Look for Disclosure Day in theaters and IMAX on June 12, via Universal.
