David Koepp is one of the highest box-office-generating screenwriters of all time, thanks in no small part to his work on several Steven Spielberg productions — including three Jurassic Park/Jurassic World films, two Indiana Jones movies, and War of the Worlds.
With Disclosure Day, their latest collaboration, Koepp set a new personal record with 42 drafts of the script.
“[Spielberg] was more exacting than I’ve ever seen him because he knows he’s worked in this area before,” Koepp tells Vanity Fair. “He wants this one to be the best one.”
Indeed, Spielberg has been probing the mystery of extraterrestrial life in his films for nearly 50 years, dating back to 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Koepp describes Disclosure Day, which came to him as a 38-page treatment from Spielberg, as a “further exploration” of the themes of Close Encounters and likens it to a ’70s-style paranoid thriller.
“[Koepp]’s a good collaborator because he listens as much to me as I do to him,” Spielberg added, noting that the writer is willing to rework a script “including and often through principal photography.”
In theaters June 12 via Universal, Disclosure Day‘s vague synopsis reads: “If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to seven billion people. We are coming close to Disclosure Day.”
Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place), Josh O’Connor (Wake Up Dead Man), Colin Firth (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Eve Hewson (Bridge of Spies), Colman Domingo (The Running Man), and Wyatt Russell (“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”) star.
Spielberg produces for Amblin Entertainment alongside Kristie Macosko Krieger (Ready Player One, The Fabelmans). Adam Somner (Ready Player One, Bridge of Spies) and Chris Brigham (Inception, Shutter Island) executive produce.
Disclosure Day is rated PG-13 for “action/violence, some bloody images, and strong language.”
Koepp is currently writing a new Westworld movie for Warner Bros.
David Koepp on the set of ‘Disclosure Day.’ Photo: Niko Tavernise/Universal Pictures & Amblin Entertainment
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