Co-writer/director Roland Emmerich opens up about how Moonfall is different from his other disaster movies and his work to outdo his previous works. The upcoming sci-fi disaster movie finds the moon knocked out of its orbit by an unknown force and heading on a collision course with Earth. In an effort to save the planet from complete destruction, astronauts Jocinda "Jo" Fowler and Brian Harper must team up with conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman to learn why the moon has shifted course, learning of a dark secret behind Earth's neighboring planet.
Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson lead the cast of Moonfall alongside John Bradley, who took over from Josh Gad due to scheduling conflicts, Michael Peña, who replaced Stanley Tucci due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Charlie Plummer, Kelly Yu and Donald Sutherland. Development on the film was first announced in early 2019, with Emmerich directing on a script he co-wrote with frequent collaborator Harold Kloser and on-the-rise scribe Spenser Cohen and landing a budget of $140 million, becoming one of the most expensive independently-produced films of all time. After frequent delays due to the ongoing pandemic, production on Moonfall would kick off in October 2020 and wrap three months later and now the film is gearing up to land in theaters in February.
With just over a week remaining until the film's release, Emmerich sat down with Collider to discuss Moonfall. In reflecting on his career in the genre and where it sits in comparison to his past works, the director explained how Moonfall is different from Emmerich's other disaster movies and how he sought to set it apart. See what Emmerich said below:
"In this movie, there is not so much, I would say, Earth action than you normally find in my movies. It's a space movie, and to a lesser degree, that the moon is falling on Earth ... I'm like working feverishly to kind of bring a little bit of the storyline on Earth down to the minimum because the people are much more interested in the moon."
After finding modest success with Universal Soldier and Stargate, Emmerich would begin making a name for himself in the film industry with the 1996 blockbuster hit Independence Day, which has gone on to become one of the most financially successful films of all time. He has since become known as one of Hollywood's go-to filmmakers in the disaster genre thanks to such hits as 2004's The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, though his most recent genre effort Independence Day: Resurgence saw poor reviews and underwhelming box office figures. The announcement of his return to the field with Moonfall has captured the attention of audiences who have enjoyed his disaster movies over the years and Emmerich's discussion of how it's different is an interesting tease of what's to come.
Plenty of the marketing for Moonfall has displayed the film's central three characters heading off to space to investigate the mysterious force behind the moon's collision course, namely going inside the planet itself and discovering an extraterrestrial threat of some kind. While Emmerich noted that he wanted to make the Earth portion of the story as minimal as possible, previous footage has shown some of the action will extend to the planet the director has torn to shreds time and again, including a car chase through a city being pulled into space by the shift in Earth's gravity. Only time will tell if Moonfall proves to be another hit for Emmerich with audiences when it hits theaters on February 4.
Source: Collider
