NewsDirector Roland Emmerich: "The moon is strange"

Director Roland Emmerich: "The moon is strange"

Most recently, Roland Emmerich brought a war film to cinemas in 2019 with “Midway – For Freedom”. Now the creators of “Independence Day” are returning to the disaster genre.

Los Angeles – Director Roland Emmerich (66) has shot many expensive blockbusters, but “Moonfall” was created under difficult circumstances. In the middle of the corona pandemic, the German Hollywood director completed the sci-fi spectacle.

Roland Emmerich (66) is considered the most successful German director in Hollywood – and is sometimes called “Master of Disaster” because of his disaster films. Emmerich comes from Stuttgart and has lived in the USA for many years.

Roland Emmerich

He raised almost $140 million for the independent film without a major Hollywood studio.

Interview with Roland Emmerich

Question: The moon landing in July 1969 during the “Apollo 11” mission plays a role in your film “Moonfall”. You were 13 years old then. Is the film the fulfillment of a childhood dream?

Answer: No, not really. My father woke us all back then because it was crazy late or early, and we watched it, a great historical moment. But my interest came from the book Who Built the Moon, written by two Englishmen who insist that the moon is an artificial object. I thought, that’s an interesting idea. That was nine or ten years ago and then I thought of a story.

Kinostart "Moonfall"

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KC Houseman (John Bradley) and NASA officer Jocinda Fowler (Halle Berry) in a scene from the movie Moonfall. The film will be in German cinemas on February 10th, 2022.

Question: One of the main characters in “Moonfall” is a conspiracy theory believer. They’re pretty common at the moment. What attracted you to it?

Answer: I’ve always been drawn to theories that are a bit fringe. In “Independence Day” I mainly made a film about Area 51. the audience is then more and more interested when it comes to conspiracy theories. (…) The moon is already strange in itself. It is almost spherical and has very specific properties that do not actually indicate a natural origin.

Moonfall is the fourth film in a series

Question: Is Moonfall a ‘Typically Emmerich’ disaster film in the style of Independence Day or The Day After Tomorrow, or is it something else?

Answer: This is a series. “Independence Day was the first, the second was The Day After Tomorrow, then came 2012 and now this is the fourth part. But all the films are totally different and have a totally different look. This time I’m much more interested in what’s happening to the moon than what’s happening to Earth. (…) It’s more science fiction than anything I’ve ever done, apart from my first film that was set entirely in space. [Note: “Noah’s Ark Principle” was Emmerich’s 1984 graduation film at the Munich University of Television and Film.]

Question: Do you think viewers want to see a disaster film during the Corona crisis?

Answer: Time will tell. I started the film before Covid. I think it’s a fun and entertaining film so it’s likely to work, but we don’t know that yet. dpa

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