Director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp have teamed up for the upcoming alien visitation film Disclosure Day, scheduled for release on June 12.
The project features an ensemble cast including Josh O'Connor, Emily Blunt, Eve Houston, Coleman Domingo, and Colin Firth, who deal with an extraterrestrial presence on Earth.
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According to Polygon, the narrative shifts away from Spielberg's previous sci-fi classics and functions instead as a paranoid 1970s-style political thriller centered on government secrecy and faith.
Koepp revealed that Spielberg purposely avoided connecting the new screenplay to his earlier iconic extraterrestrial films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
"[Steven's] really allergic to repeating himself," Koepp said, adding that any form of self-reference makes the director highly uncomfortable during the creative process.
"Any kind of self-reference makes him want to throw up," Koepp noted.
The script was adapted by Koepp from an original 40-page treatment developed by Spielberg, which the writer described as a massive narrative requiring significant development.
A Story About Truth and Disinformation
The story explores the societal impacts of prolonged government disinformation regarding extraterrestrial life.
"What became undeniable to me is that governments — not just the United States, but many governments — have engaged in an 80-year campaign of disinformation and suppression," Koepp said.
Koepp clarified that the film intends to address the contemporary political climate where widespread untruths lead the public to question all information.
"The current government gleefully lies and extravagantly abundantly lies," he said.
The narrative aims to distance itself from conspiratorial nihilism by focusing on the search for objective reality.
"The problem is they lie so much that we question everything and we believe nothing," Koepp said.
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The film addresses these societal challenges by emphasizing the importance of verifiable facts rather than endorsing conspiracy theories.
"We're not coming out in favor of conspiracies," Koepp said. "We're coming out in favor of truth."
The thematic focus also introduces spiritual elements, linking beliefs about alien life directly to philosophical questions of human faith.
"Whether we've been visited by aliens or not is a question of faith, much like God is a question of faith," Koepp said.
The screenwriting process required constant vigilance from both creators to eliminate accidental nods to Spielberg's extensive filmography.
"You'll write something and he'll say, 'Doesn't that kind of feel like that scene in Jaws where…' And you're like, 'Oh fuck — yes, it is,'" Koepp said.
Koepp stated that inserting deep philosophical dialogue into a major summer adventure film requires high narrative stakes to keep the audience engaged.
"You're putting in a philosophical dialogue scene in the middle of what is essentially a summer adventure movie," he said.
The screenwriter emphasized that the dramatic tension in these scenes must match the excitement of traditional action sequences.
"The fireworks in that scene better be equivalent to a train-car chase, otherwise everybody's going to go for popcorn," he said.
Spielberg previously shared his personal fascination with the existence of extraterrestrial life during a keynote appearance at the SXSW festival earlier this year.
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"I don't know any more than any of you do, but I have a very strong suspicion that we are not alone here on Earth right now — and I made a movie about that," Spielberg admitted.
