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Roland Emmerich (; born 10 November 1955) is a German-American filmmaker. Emmerich is widely known for his science fiction and and has been called a "master of disaster" within the movie industry. His films, most of which are English-language Hollywood productions, have made more than $3 billion worldwide, including just over $1 billion in the United States, making him the 17th-highest-grossing Hollywood director of all time.
Emmerich began his work in the film industry by directing the film The Noah's Ark Principle (1984) as part of his university thesis and also co-founded Centropolis Entertainment in 1985 with his sister. He has subsequently directed the films Universal Soldier (1992), Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), Godzilla (1998), The Patriot (2000), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 10,000 BC (2008), 2012 (2009), White House Down (2013), Stonewall (2015), (2016), Midway (2019), and Moonfall (2022).
In 1985, he founded Centropolis Film Productions (now Centropolis Entertainment) in partnership with his sister, producer Ute Emmerich, and directed his major film debut, a fantasy feature named Joey. He subsequently directed the 1987 comedy Hollywood-Monster and the 1990 science-fiction film Moon 44. Theatrically, these were only released in and near his native country, although Emmerich filmed them in English and went against conventional German styles in an attempt to appeal to a larger market. This subsequently resulted in Moon 44 being released direct-to-video in the U.S. in early 1991. Joey and Hollywood-Monster eventually also saw home video releases in the U.S. (as Making Contact and Ghost Chase, respectively) once Emmerich achieved more prominence in America.
Emmerich next helmed the 1994 science-fiction film Stargate. At the time, it set a record for the highest-grossing opening weekend for a film released in the month of October. It became more commercially successful than most film industry insiders had anticipated, and spawned a highly popular Stargate.
Emmerich then directed Independence Day, an alien invasion feature, released in 1996, that became the first film to gross $100 million in less than a week Film History of the 1990s filmsite.org. Retrieved on 8 July 2008. and went on to become one of the most financially successful films of all time, "Independence Day." Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 8 July 2008. at one point having been the second-highest-grossing film in terms of worldwide box office. "William Fay Bio." www.10000bcmovie.com. Retrieved on 4 March 2008. Emmerich and Devlin then created the television series The Visitor, which aired on the Fox Network during 1997–1998 before being cancelled after one season.
His next film, Godzilla, opened in 1998. An extensive advertising and marketing campaign generated significant hype during the months leading up to the film's release. The film was a box office success but was met with negative reviews from critics and fans. It garnered a Saturn Award for Best Special Effects, a BMI Film Music Award, and the Audience Award for Best Director at the European Film Awards while also receiving a Razzie Award for Worst Remake or Sequel. It has only a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Emmerich said that prior to getting involved with Godzilla he and Devlin had planned a disaster movie centered around an asteroid fall, which wound up cancelled after Armageddon went for a similar idea.
In 2008, Emmerich directed 10,000 BC, a film about the journeys of a prehistoric tribe of Woolly mammoth hunters. It was a box office hit, but consistently regarded by professional critics as his worst film, as well as one of the worst films of the year. He was slated to direct a remake of the 1966 science-fiction film Fantastic Voyage, but he eventually left project, due to clashing with its producer James Cameron. In 2009, Emmerich directed 2012, an apocalyptic disaster film based on the conspiracy theory that the ancient Mayans prophesied the world's ending on 21 December 2012. Despite mixed reviews, the film went on to be his second-highest-grossing film to date (after Independence Day) and received praise from audiences. Emmerich usually finishes production of a large-scale movie both in a time frame shorter and on a budget lower than what is typically requested by other directors.
In 2011, Sony Pictures had purchased a pitch for Emmerich's project Singularity, a sci-fi epic about a man composed of Nanorobotics. Originally planned for a 2013 release, the project has since gone into development hell.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> What Happened to 'Singularity,' the Roland Emmerich Blockbuster That Never Was?
Emmerich directed the action-thriller film White House Down, which involved a terrorist attack on the White House by a paramilitary group. The spec script was written by James Vanderbilt and was purchased by Sony Pictures for in March 2012. The Hollywood Reporter called it "one of the biggest spec sales in quite a while". The journal said the script was similar "tonally and thematically" to the films Die Hard, Air Force One and Olympus Has Fallen (2013). Emmerich began filming in July 2012 at the La Cité Du Cinéma in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The film was released on 28 June 2013 in the United States.
Whenever asked about making a personal project, Emmerich thought it would be "a gay film", and after friends during production of Anonymous asked if he could make a film on the Stonewall riots, Emmerich got interested in the idea. Stonewall was released in 2015. He followed it with a sequel to his most successful film in , released twenty years after the original Independence Day on 24 June 2016.
In November 2019, Emmerich directed the film Midway based on the battle of Midway during the Pacific Theater of World War II.
In June 2023, Emmerich announced a franchise titled Space Nation which will consist of a MMORPG, a TV series, animated shorts and spinoff games.
Emmerich is Gay men and is an LGBT rights activist. He is married to Omar De Soto. He has stated that he witnessed overt racism when producers and studio executives were opposed to allowing him to cast Will Smith for the lead in Independence Day, and reluctant to allow him to portray an interracial couple in The Day After Tomorrow. The Day After Tomorrow Director/Producer DVD Commentary (2004) He has also stated that he has encountered homophobia from the same groups, and is vocal in his opposition to such behavior. He has stated that sometimes he does "not the movie business", describing it as a sometimes "very cold, brutal business", but his motivation to keep directing is that he genuinely "likes making movies".
In 2006, he pledged $150,000 to the Legacy Project, a campaign dedicated to gay and lesbian film preservation. Emmerich made the donation on behalf of Outfest, making it the largest gift in the festival's history. In 2007, on behalf of the LGBT community, he held a fundraiser at his Los Angeles home for Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
In 2011, he became a U.S. citizen while keeping his German citizenship. He stated he did so because he "wanted to have a vote in the next US elections" and that he waited because he "didn’t want to become an American under Bush."
He is a collector of art. Emmerich's extensive collection of artwork includes a painting of Jesus Christ wearing a Katharine Hamnett-styled T-shirt during his crucifixion, prints of Alison Jackson's works of a Princess Diana lookalike making obscene gestures and engaging in sex acts, a wax sculpture of Pope John Paul II laughing as he reads his own obituary, and a image of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a Homoeroticism pose. Emmerich, a financial supporter of U.S. progressive politics, states that the decorations and pieces are not declarations of any beliefs, but rather reflections of his "predilection for art with a political edge".
Emmerich is in favor of the campaign for stunt performers to receive recognition at the , and has worked to raise awareness over the issue of global warming. He once was a chain-smoker who was known to smoke as many as four packs of cigarettes a day, Emmerich has often included in his films characters who are trying to quit smoking or warn against the dangers of tobacco use. Along with several other celebrities, he is a producer of The 1 Second Film, a non-profit project intended to raise money for women's rights in the Third World.
Producer
| 1980 | Altosax | TV movie | |||
| 1997–1998 | The Visitor | ||||
| 1998–2000 | |||||
| 2012 | Dark Horse | TV movie | |||
| 2024 | Those About to Die | TV series |
In response to accusations of insensitivity for including scenes of New York City being destroyed in The Day After Tomorrow, less than three years after the September 11 attacks, Emmerich said that it was necessary to depict the event as a means to showcase the increased unity people now have when facing a disaster, because of the attacks. When accused of resorting too often to scenes of cities being subjected to epic disasters, Emmerich says that it is a justified way of increasing awareness about both global warming, and the lack of a government preparation plan for a global doomsday scenario in the cases of The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, respectively.
Acknowledging what he characterized as flaws with Godzilla, Emmerich admitted he regretted having agreed to direct it. He stated that his lack of interest in the previous Godzilla movies, the short time he promised it would take for him to complete the film, and the studio's refusal to screen it for test audiences were all factors that may have negatively affected the quality of the final product, and cited the former reason as to why he turned down an offer to direct Spider-Man, as he was not interested in comic books or superhero-related fiction. However, Emmerich still defends Godzilla, noting that the film was highly profitable and claiming that, of all his movies, people tell him Godzilla is the one they and their kids watch the most repeatedly.
Emmerich has also faced criticism from the LGBTQ community. His film Stonewall was criticized for being whitewashed and diminishing the contributions of transgender women of color to starting the Stonewall riots, and for being sex-negative. In response to these claims, Emmerich has said the Stonewall riots were "a white event". The film received generally negative reviews from critics.
Similarly, Emmerich touted his 2016 film as having a gay couple, but when the film was released, Johnny Gayzmonic of Unicorn Booty criticized the film because the couple in question was two trivial characters lacking in believable chemistry who were utilized solely for comic relief, one of whom was needlessly killed off in a way that was not vital to the plot (the other having been depicted as strictly heterosexual in tie-in material to the first film), the characters only being revealed to have been a gay couple during the aforementioned death scene (with references to their relationship being cut from the Chinese version of the film), a fate that Gayzmonic observed befell many gay couples in film.
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| Godzilla | Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel | ||
| Worst Director | |||
| Worst Picture | |||
| Worst Screenplay | |||
| 2017 | Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel | ||
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| 1997 | Independence Day | Best Dramatic Presentation | |
| 1997 | Independence Day | Favorite Movie | |
| 1997 | Independence Day | Best International Director | |
| Best International Film | |||
| 2005 | The Day After Tomorrow | Best International Film | |
| 1997 | Independence Day | Best Movie | |
| 1997 | Independence Day | Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture | |
| 1997 | Independence Day | Best Director | |
| 1999 | Godzilla | Best Director | |
| Best Fantasy Film | |||
| 2005 | The Day After Tomorrow | Best Science Fiction Film | |
| 2010 | 2012 | Best Action or Adventure Film | |
| 2017 | Best Science Fiction Film | ||
| 2010 | 2012 | Scream Awards | |
| 1996 | Independence Day | Best Director | |
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