Steven Spielberg has said he truly believes in aliens for the launch of his latest sci-fi movie.
The award winning director, behind hit movies E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, said “we are not alone”.
The 79-year-old filmmaker’s latest film Disclosure Day follows a meteorologist, played by Emily Blunt, as she experiences a mysterious alien encounter during a live broadcast. The conspiracy thriller also stars Pride And Prejudice actor Colin Firth, Euphoria’s Colman Doming and Challengers actor Josh O’Connor, who plays a tech whiz whistleblower who attempts to expose classified government files about extra-terrestrial life to the public.
The film comes almost 50 years after the release of Oscar-nominated Close Encounters, which connects three people who have experiences of alien interactions.
View 3 ImagesAward winning director Steven Spielberg said he believes we are not alone in the universe(Image: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Ahead of Disclosure Day’s release, Spielberg shared his belief that aliens are out there somewhere.
He said: “I do believe that we are not alone in the cosmos, in the universe. As far as whether I believe that aliens are here and have been here, 50 years ago, when I made Close Encounters, I would have said seeing is believing. And I haven’t seen one. I’ve not even seen a UFO. But today, with all the smartphones that are out there, and all the things that I’ve seen, and all the people who I believe, I believe the believers. I am absolutely ready to say that I do believe we are not alone here on this planet,” he told the The Rest is Entertainment podcast.
At the UK premiere of the film, the director added to the BBC that he thinks aliens will be discovered in our lifetime. He said: “I’ve become more optimistic that people are going to be able to discover things that we have not been allowed to discover.”
His star Josh O’Connor agreed that there was “something out there” but said he didn’t think we’d be finding extra-terrestrial life anytime soon. Meanwhile Emily Blunt said it was “mathematically insane to imagine we are the only civilisation”.
View 3 ImagesEmily Blunt and Josh O’Connor in Disclosure Day(Image: Universal Pictures)
Spielberg is known for his alien-centric movies. In 1982, he released E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, about a young boy who helps an alien stranded on Earth to get back home. Like with Close Encounters, that film earned Spielberg a best director nomination at the Oscars, as well as a nomination for best picture. ET became his biggest box office hit after 1993’s Jurassic Park.
Elsewhere in the podcast, the director revealed his attempts to direct a James Bond movie over the years, admitting his failure led him to another hugely successful franchise in Indiana Jones.
He said he approached Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli, the legendary American producer who co-founded and built the James Bond franchise after Jaws had been a hit for him in 1975.
“I’d always wanted to make a James Bond film from the day I saw Dr. No, so I called Cubby after Jaws and volunteered. I said, ‘If you need a director, I would love to direct one.’ And he said no. Then Cubby called me again after Close Encounters came out, which was another big hit. A few years later, he said, ‘We’d like to use the five notes in Moonraker.’ And I said, ‘I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you permission to use the five notes if you let me direct a Bond film.’ And he said no. But I gave him the five notes anyway.
“So they consistently turned me down – at least, Broccoli did. He never explained why he wasn’t letting me into the Bond family. But when I told that story to George Lucas in 1977, when we were in Hawaii together getting ready for the release of Star Wars: A New Hope, he said, ‘I have something better than Bond. It’s called Indiana Smith,’ which is what it was called at the time. He told me the premise of the Indiana Jones series, and that’s how I got that job. So if they ever asked me to make a Bond film now, my answer would be: ‘You can’t afford me.’”
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