Director Roland Emmerich has made a career out of pushing the envelope in disaster cinema, and if the trailers are to be believed, it looks like he’ll do it again with the Halle Berry-starring Moonfall out this Friday. After decades of destroying recognizable landmarks for our entertainment, Moonfall will be Emmerich’s first film set almost entirely in space as scientists race to prevent a cataclysmic event from destroying Earth. When the director was asked whether he’d Actually go to space for a film one day, he offered the following:
“Well, I’m constantly discussing with myself as a person if I should go into space or not [Laughs] and if I kind of risk it,…. “Today, you can do pretty much everything in CGI. I have the feeling it’s…when you see Star Wars or any one of these movies, it looks so believable now”.
Roland Emmerich, ComicBoomMovie.com Interview
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Emmerich is right in pointing out the limitless possibilities of CGI. While practical effects and techniques are still utilized and respected, a majority of the big blockbusters rely heavily on CGI to create their worlds, action sequences, and sometimes entire characters to blend together. Under the best circumstances, you can get something like Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy or District 9, which were noted for combining their practical and CG effects to near seamlessness on release and have largely held up today.
Of course, you also have occasions where an overreliance on CGI can distance an audience from the film and overcome the story and characters, many point to the Star Wars prequels as an example of this, so it’s always tricky business when marrying CG with practical sets.
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Emmerich essentially redefined the summer blockbuster with 1996’s Independence Day, sold on the now-iconic shot of The White House blowing up right before our very eyes. That film, his previous outing, 1994’s Stargate (which spawned a popular TV series), and the film that came after, 1998’s Godzilla, were all sold with explosive teaser trailers that hinted at huge things to come and received boatloads upon boatloads of promotion before release. He scaled things back a bit for The Patriot, a Mel Gibson-starring war epic, before ramping them right back up again for The Day After Tomorrow, a disaster film boasting an environmental message.
The 2010s saw him continuing the blockbuster bombast with 10,000 BC, the John Cusack-starring 2012 that was made to capitalize on the then-popular fear the world would end in that year, the period drama Anonymous detailing a conspiracy theory surrounding William Shakespeare, the ridiculous but fun Die Hard clone White House Down starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx, the LGBTQ drama Stonewall, a sequel to Independence Day subtitled Resurgence, and most recently a remake of Midway back in 2019. You can get a peek at his next film Moonfall in the trailer below.
Trailer for Roland Emmerich’s Next Film, Moonfall
Emmerich’s newest film Moonfall contains a typically star-studded cast (Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, Michael Pena, and Donald Sutherland among others and will see a group of astronauts attempt to prevent the moon from crashing into Earth. From the looks of things, it seems like Emmerich is staying right in his regular territory and we couldn’t be happier to see him there. Moonfall crashes into theaters this Friday, February 4, 2022.
What are your thoughts on the idea of Roland Emmerich (or anyone) really going to space to film a movie? Are you looking forward to Moonfall? What’s your favorite Roland Emmerich film? Let us know in the comments below and on our Twitter.
Source: Comicbookmovie.com
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